Look, those of us struggling (financially, mentally or otherwise) know who we are, and we also know those in our circle in the same/similar situations. We know that Trump has not, and isnt likely to fix the things in need of being fixed to lessen the hurt of our situations. In fact, we know there are maybe a small chance of some minor fixes on the horizon. Maybe. But waiting for the perfect storm required to accomplish even the littlest of things - does not give much hope.
I think most Americans know this WH and this Congress, will do nothing important for the next several months. Unless you deem bickering important.
The bickering will only depress the national spirit even more. Trump's behaviors, likely to get way worse now, will exacerbate the dispiriting of America. We don't like having someone like him in our faces day after day, after day. His presence is a toxin. His minions are real toxins in the system. (which the press needs to do a better job exposing!)
His constant assault on us, and always dominating the news, is akin to being berated everyday by an abusing partner or family member. The bullying isn't just aimed at his "enemies", but it includes us all, because we're all in the room when he attacks.
Having him in our faces everyday is not healthy for the nation. And the media needs to figure out how to cover his damaging effects, while not giving his voice, and gross messages so much amplification.
In other words, stop repeating 2016!
93
No it will be Democratic Leaders who get Trump re-elected. I applauded Pelosi for ripping up his speech.
Yet Dem Senators, though a minority, as usual have figuratively been complicit in ripping up USC Art I Sec 3 by not coming to its defense. How can you not continually fight for The USC by not publicly confronting those who have publicly shamed & rejected it? For any Senator to cast a vote not to hear relevant evidence in a Senate Trial is a Most serious violation of Honor & Trust to his or her Office.
Instead of reading the news maybe they should show some guts and make some!
19
The "economy" is propped up with destructive de-regulation. Trump is riding Obama's coattails on this one. He is still only at 45- 49 % - if the dems could get out of their own way, the election would be a cake walk.
14
This is to NM:
NM, with your talent for connection and empathy you could start a personal blog of support for people who feel challenged by life -- not a therapy site (though perhaps you have credentials), but a "listening and witnessing" blog that would permit people to tell a brief story about what they're going through medically and receive personalized encouragement from you and members.
You're good at this. And do it for (minor) subscription payment, (such as $5 for two months) since you want to have employment and income. I'm not kidding. People writing would need to be anonymous and there would need to be screening so your blog did not become a mess of unrelated comments. You could call it something like MedCheer or CheerWell. Your voice is needed!!
As much as medication we need immediacy and kindness!
17
Indignant columns are scalable solution if you write a few hundred a day. So get crackin' Kristof.
2
Kristof never confronts the progressive elites greatest sin: A visceral hatred of white working-class Americans and any political leader who dares defend them.
20
I knew we were all in trouble when 15 years ago when my wife was nearing her 10 year to vest a pension at Bank of America, they started giving her jobs she was unable to phyically to do and then layed her off before she was vested. Up to then she was an outstanding employee, but a few quarters of poor performance and out the door she went to save some money
38
seems like a lot of these suicides of despair are occurring among the demographic that forms a large percentage of the (t)Rump cult. maybe the reasons they are so depressed are the very reasons they are voting for (t)Rump. they are close-mined whites who see their privileged status slipping away from them, and their economic well being destroyed by the very republican policies they foolishly support. instead of embracing the future of a more diverse and inclusive society with hope and enthusiasm the look to a dead end past and its prophet. seems to me they are getting what they deserve.
14
I think I get it. America (ok, not all) fiddles while the planet burns?
10
I do not understand why so many of us who despise Trump are willing to concede that he deserves credit for "the good economy".
First, the economy is only good for Trump, fellow billionaires, multi-millionaires and wealthy corporations. For everyone else it's not. And, this is the Obama economy we're enjoying. The stock market did better under President Obama, and Obama created more jobs. President Obama saved the auto industry which is a big contributor to the jobs picture and to the health of the overall economy.
In addition, President Obama prevented a collapse of the financial markets, and he successfully turned what was nearly another Great Depression into a Great Recession. Plus, it is NECESSARY to increase SHORT TERM government spending in such circumstances, but R's did not cooperate. Since Trump's election, R's gave gratuitous, massive tax cuts to the wealthy (lying to the middle class) and have created the largest budget deficits and national debt in history.
Lowering federal interest rates has cause irresponsible borrowing by businesses. This guarantees a much more severe recession (or depression) when the next downturn comes. And there's no where left for the feds to go with lowering interest rates.
Under Trump, the economy is a mirage. It's going to implode!
54
I predict if Trump wins a second term, any scraps he's been throwing to his supporters will stop.
24
"Meanwhile, the central fact of America today is not its economic vigor but its profound inequity".
Thank you. Not enough is written about "real wages" and about how the lower income worker is getting closer to the edge all the time, as inflation threatens to sweep us into unknown chasms. No wonder that many of us are depressed; anyone would be when faced with the anxiously of preserving inches when others seem to have miles to spare.
We have to recognize that a candidate like Sanders does not only speak the language of the left, but of working class Americans everywhere. This dangerous edge is not jagged, with pork chop refuges, it is as deadly straight for one and for all.
13
"This all sounds promising, but indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices."
True, but a heartfelt thanks to you for sounding the alarm with your powerful narratives about those mistreated and left behind.
17
I just wanted to say how pleased I am about the 2 employees from the bank are getting their jobs back. We all know that they never should have had them taken away in the first place. Also, I do understand about the company's policy; but come on. Lastly, I just wish that the power of journalism and how we witnessed it actually worked right in front of our eyes, could work for more of us when wronged on a bigger level. But it's a good start.
22
As a primary care physician treating mostly Medicaid, Medicare and self pay patients, I see heartbreak every single day. I often find denials for MRI, CT, and other imaging studies, even though it is well documented in my notes on why these patients need to have them ordered. Insurances have found some other dangerous cost saving techniques that we providers disagree with. Other health care providers and I have lost sleep over our frustration on not being to help them out. It's really a blow to us when we're trying really hard to help them out. No wonder that health care workers are constantly depressed.
55
Thank you for your help for Abigail and Emily, and for your focus in so many of your articles on our culture's neglect of our well-being and our fundamental human needs.
15
I live in Argentina where the economy is a mess, but there has always been free health care and eduction for everybody. Foreigners come to our hospitals, schools and universities and pay nothing. That is not right, in my opinion. All "medical tourists" should pay their due, as well as students. Citizens should pay according to a scale calculated on their income, but below a certain amount it's OK not to pay. I never understood how the USA, rich country, treats it's citizens so cruelly.
44
I entirely agree there is such a hidden depression.
I entirely agree that what we have is just continuation of Obama's economy. " The Obama recovery has continued under Trump"
However, that means that the hidden depression was there before Trump too. It was made deep and biting by Dubya's Great Recession. It was not relieved by Obama's recovery any more than it is relieved by Trump's continuation of Obama's recovery.
Yet we did not hear about this hidden depression until now. The same people who now correctly identify it were telling us about how wonderful things were before Trump, when Trump was running.
I see selective recognition. I saw Bernie calling it out for the 2016 election, as he does now, but I did not see it admitted by the rest of the Democrats until now.
12
I read a lot about the opioid crises and suicides of despair prior to 2016. I think you just have to do a search on older NYT articles. Anyway, I know that every Democratic candidate in 2016 made addressing that crIsis part of his/her platform.
Kristof makes clear that the crisis predated Trump.
8
You nailed nailed it. We don't have a serious Left opposition to the fanaticism of the Right. The Dems are co-conspirators in the betrayal of the working class. To paraphrase Chomsky, you can't be shocked when after the Repubs hurt the poor and the Dems' response is to do the same thing only to a lesser extent, a fanatic like Trump gets elected.
I find it funny that smug liberals have the audacity to tell white Trump supporters that they're undermining their own interests; in American politics, the only politicians that give you an alternative end up getting undermined (The Big Scary Squad Bernie) by their own party, which means the Repubs never even have to face them!
Dems have a hard time grappling with the fact that their party is only marginally less malicious than the Repubs (I say that with love; I'm a registered Dem). News flash; Obama wasn't so great. Though Repubs say this in bad faith, they're essentially right when they say Obama was a manufactured media success story due to the historical circumstances.
12
Even if we concede the (laughable) point that the economy is booming, it's still an outrage that the wealthiest geopolitical entity in human history can't provide housing, healthcare, and education to its entire population; it's even more of an outrage when you realize how much we lag on all fronts behind other (deeply flawed) capitalist economies in the developed democratic world (when great Americans like Ilhan Omar bring this up, the media flak machine turns on and predictably vilifies them).
This -- not Ukraine, not Trump, and not Russia -- is the scandal of the century.
While I'm critiquing American politics, it's also scandalous that Pelosi, our great Opposition Leader (and most libs), stand with Repubs and Dems alike to applaud to casual murder of children in the Global South; I'm referring to American economic terrorism.
In other words, I don't know about you folks, but I'm more outraged by what Dems and Repubs agree on than about the predictably terrible policies and rhetoric and corruption of our Supreme Leader.
Do the right thing and vote Bernie.
11
Nicholas, please prepare a sequel to this editorial. I want to know why so many of the people you have written about here seem to be Trump voters. His administration has done nothing to put more money in their pockets, make healthcare more accessible and affordable or done a thing to improve our nation's infrastructure ( an area where manual labor would be in great demand).
What do they believe he is doing/has done/will do to make their lives better?
23
Thank you for writing this kind of empathetic and thoughtful article. How in the world can an enemy of the people be so very wise and helpful.
2
During my 70 years a lot of swings in employment have been seen.
One thing that was not seen in the past was the high number of people living in tent encampments inside cities.
Talking to a business man a few days ago he said many of these 'homeless people' actually are working. Their wages do not pay enough to afford housing.
To my way of thinking living in a tent is not a sign of a great economy or of economic opportunity.
How many people actually received a $4,000 to $9,000 raise we were promised from the last tax cut?
Maybe if it is averaged out with the raises those in the corporate top brass received, everyone did statistically.
Big whoop!
26
The Declaration of Independence promises us the pursuit of happiness. It doesn't promise happiness. That's beyond the power of any government to provide.
Suicide is usually the result of depression, a disease that medical science doesn't know to cure and doesn't manage very well. It has nothing to do with economics---in fact, the diagnosis of depression requires there be no rational cause (such as the death of a family member, or unemployment) for the unhappiness.
4
WRT to people getting ignored...
It is depressing that the democratic party refuses to correct "mistakes" on the Iowa caucus tally sheets. When I say depressing, that includes depressing to voter turnout. Maybe that's their intent? Of course they'll attempt to spin this as a few inflexible "bros" that refused to vote just because they didn't get their way. Take a minute the next time you hear that and ask yourself: What's so unreasonable about asking for a fair vote?
3
I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. I think it’s incompetence. Time to retire the caucus system.
3
so compassionate of Mr.Kristof to highlight the suffering of some of those among us.
However, may I ask, did we not have folks suffering during the terms that President Obama served?
In the interest of intellectual honesty, may I ask, did Mr.Kristof publish any articles haranguing Obama because some of us were suffering?
Or it this a sideways jab at Trump, covered in a sweet compassionate wrapper?
2
He did.
5
Goebbels learned everything he needed to learn from Woodrow Wilson's Creel Committee (1915-1919).
The legal definition of insanity is not knowing right from wrong and a century of gaslighting has achieved its goal.
The truth of the blacklists is the only plots to take over America were on the right. Those blacklisted were not plotting taking over America they asked the questions needed to combat the gaslighting. They even named one of their movies Gaslight.
America no longer led the liberal democracies when it voted in Reagan. We are healthier, wealthier, better educated more secure and freer than America. That doesn't happen when you follow a leader that is in decline.
4
I admire the tenacity of the NYT editorial board.
They are so determined to find the, ever harder to find, exceptions to the great American economy. They have now resorted to call center fired employee sob stories.
The facts are clear.
President Trump, by pushing and passing the tax cuts, by appointing and pressuring the Fed chair, has push the American economy to new heights.
The unemployment rate now is one full percentage point below what economists considered to be full employment. No economist thought it was possible to bring that rate down to ˜3.5%. Yet President Trump proved them wrong.
On income growth, no one thought it was possible for the incomes of the poorest Americans to rise faster than the rich. But that is exactly what is happening in the Trump economy.
Trump forever altered the way the economy is measured, understood.
For the next century, unemployment will be forever referred to as "not as low as under the Trump presidency".
3
The raise in wages for the poorest is due to the minimum wage hikes which is in spite of Trump
18
Suicide has been with man a while.....The great Socrates himself implicitly posed the question: is hemlock a poison or a cure?
“The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways; I to die, and you to live. Which is better? Only God knows.”
Socrates
“No church, no civil institution has as yet invented a single argument valid against suicide. What answer is there to the man who can no longer endure life? . . . Suicide is one of man’s distinctive characteristics, one of his discoveries; no animal is capable of it, and the angels have scarcely guessed at its existence; without it, human reality would be less curious, less picturesque: we should lack a strange climate and a series of deadly possibilities which have their aesthetic value, if only to introduce into tragedy certain new solutions and a variety of denouements.” (SHD 38)
Cioran
Another four years of this nonsense I may have join the great thinker with a snort of helium.
4
Good for you, Mr. Kristoff, for helping out Ms. Gilbert and Ms. James. I trust the Times won't fire you for it.
7
The economy will get him elected.
To his religious zealots, I’d say, “what profiteth a man if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his soul.” Mark, 8 36.
To Republicans, you have, as President, ( as described by a Toronto Globe and Mail writer) , a man who offers “pathological lying, the habitual corruption, the serial groping, the casual racism, the glorification of violence, the winking to Nazis, the laziness, the impulsiveness, the childish tantrums, the bottomless ignorance, the vanity, the insecurity, the vulnerability (so skilfully exploited by America’s adversaries) to flattery, the bullying, the crudity, the indifference to suffering, the incompetence, the chaos in the White House, the attacks on America’s allies and support for its foes, the contempt for experts and for expertise, for norms and conventions, for checks and balances, for limited government, for the very rule of law.
Further, he says –“ it is not possible to be exposed to all this on a daily basis for four years and shrug it off or explain it away or accept it as part of the deal without there being something wrong with you.” That’s you, Republicans.
18
@Steve - You’ll recall what they said about Mussolini: ‘He made the trains run on time.’ Same deal with Republicans and ‘Christian evangelicals.’
5
From my own perspective, what is currently touted as progress is no longer uplifting the majority of Americans as it did in yesteryear (re: " . . . happiness in America has continued to fall"), rather is creating more complex contests which most Americans are sure they are losing. The losing Majority justifiably fears it has lost control and consequently feels unable to cope and adapt.
The result is loss of Majority confidence in a System that no longer promotes their progress, only increases the power of a small group of Elites who tout current 'progress' because it places them in control an Autocracy that serves their own power interests [while ameliorating the power of the Majority].
5
It is not only low-income, non-college educated people who are suffering, Think of those relatively well-paid rank and file Silicon Valley workers who have to commute up to two hours each way because of sky-high housing costs; this, often after putting in a 70-hour workweek. I think of my sister, who moved into a town with an excellent school system, but who had to pay more than she could really afford for housing. Think of the time and cost of enrichment programs that in part enabled her child to graduate from MIT. Think of the more than $100,000 in college loans that she owes. She will not be able to retire until age 70 or later, even though she is a tenured college professor.
12
I believe Trump's elimination of the personal exemption, for seniors, families with minor children and 1099 employees, has created a taxable consequence that is harming and possibly crippling, taxpayers. I'm surprised no one has complained.
12
What's new? The American economy has never provided enough jobs except during World War II.
The Federal Reserve has the explicit mandate to suppress wages - called halting "inflation" - and equality is not a word known to the Fed.
An increase in wages for labor is called "inflation". An increase in the price of a financial asset is called a "capital gain".
7
We need a popular account of life expectancies broken down by economic class, region, and race. It might show that affluent people are living longer than ever and that our poor and uneducated are on average losing months and years. We also need to know figures for other countries.
If this data exists, it would be in social scientific and medical journals. Popular extracts would be found in smaller publications with a political slant. They should also be found in our paper of record, but this opinion piece contains no links to them.
6
When you have a good job and hundreds of thousands saved up in investment portfolios you must wonder, what is everybody complaining about!? You see prosperity around you. You don't care how much a roll of toilet paper is, or a can of cat food, or a chicken breast. You don't realize that prices for necessities have been rising by multiples of the official inflation rate. You don't have the slightest idea of how many people who need a job are now "invisible" because they're no longer counted as part of the labor force.
It's not your fault, because how could you know? You rely on data coming from official sources, but that data is WRONG. When millions are begging for a more equitable economy, please listen and help.
27
Thank you so much for this column.
I, like millions of other Americans, am still recovering from the mortgage meltdown, CDO fiasco, market crash of 2007-09.
This, when coupled with the disappearance of employment with salaries that cover the cost of living, including inflated housing costs, has been difficult.
I see the stock market edging towards the 30,000 mark, but can only imagine that so much of this volume is illusory, created by programmed trading, and can disappear much as real jobs did over the past two decades in a blink and without notice.
The consolidation of wealth in this nation over the past few decades is disconcerting.
We the people have been plundered, by the Saudi with their attack and takeover of the largest oil refinery in the US which captures the revenues generated as we became a net exporter of oil, by the Trump administration, that is giving public lands and resources to corrupt pals, (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/trump-utah-national-parks-energy-development-drilling) by the Madoffs, and ENRON's and WorldCOm's and Savings and Loans scandals costing us trillions, and the twenty years of tax payer subsidization of oil and opium cartels operating in Iraq and Afghanistan with free US military support and protection. We spend a trillion a year on military, much of it benefiting private corporations.
We are 22 trillion in national debt.
Can no one stop the endless pilfering of our national resources.
16
The gibberish of “we’re all in this together” is so untrue it’s criminal. Many people in this economy are silently getting ahead. They do not struggle to purchase cars or houses or fund school tuitions or absorb health care issues. The red herring of Hunter Biden’s allegedly receiving monies to which he wasn’t entitled is laughable. Trump bragged about the economy and low unemployment but only a dolt wouldn’t realize you received a present purchased with your own money.
6
Hitler raised Germanys debts too. People forget that Hitler was corrupt, not paying taxes nor declaring income.
Like Trump, 'popularity'beat sanity at the polling stations.
11
Suicide rates in America have been increasing for much longer than Trump has been in office. See for example, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/ss/ss6618a1.htm . In fact, the rate of increase of suicide rates was essentially the same before and after what you call "The Obama Recovery." I am not arguing that Trump is "good for everyone." It hurts your credibility to continue to try to find reasons to blame any and all ills of our society on Trump.
2
"Sigh" and that is why Hillary lost - she trumpeted the benefits of the Obama Economy - meanwhile there was a slow-down/mini-recession in early 2016 that no one reported on - look at the GDP chart and you can see the dip.
The labor market participation rate is still not great - but it is better than when Hillary was running - so what is the Democrats pitch?
this article is just partisan blah blah blah that just preaches to people that are already converted.
Lately I have been noticing the unceasing slavish admiration we heap on the rich. We, and this paper included, contribute to our own demise when place billionaires on glossy pedestals, speak with awe of those attending Davos, and in general ohh and ahh while they sit back in tight little circles knowing we are at their feet.
10
The CPI may say we have ‘growth without inflation,’ but anyone living in any town of any size in the U.S. knows that is balderdash. The cost of housing, health care, child care and education have skyrocketed, and these costs are pushing more and more of our ‘middle class’ into the ranks of a permanent underclass of working poor.
At least 90% of us are vulnerable. When I went to law school at my state university in 1983, resident tuition was under $3000 a year. The federal minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. Today, the tuition is $30,000. The minimum wage is not $33.50 an hour. A few years after graduation, I bought a modest bungalow in Seattle for $72,000. That very same home is now
$1 million. The cost of health care has outpaced the CPI for years. Child care costs more than a minimum wage worker earns.
This is not just happening in high flying metropolitan areas - it has reached small town America. Most of us have one foot on the banana peel.
In 2017 the wealthy received $1 trillion in tax relief - say goodbye to ‘infrastructure’ and other programs. Since 2017, the net worth of the 1% has increased by an estimated 29%. Wages up 2% annually.
Irony of ironies: the most popular and brutally effective method of suicide among rural white males? Exercising their sacred Second Amendment right. Suicide by gun ‘succeeds’ about 90% of the time; all other suicide methods have about a 90% failure rate. That’s one of ‘conservatism’s’ many gifts to rural and working class Americans.
21
@chambolle
The republicans rigged the way statistics are gathered and put out during the reagan admin. This baloney about inflation is just more of the same.
5
Thank you for pointing out that this "great economy" is not great for everybody, and that "when Jeff Bezos walks into a room, average wealth there shoots up so that each person becomes, in average, a billionaire." :)
I also wonder how these 'added' jobs per month are counted. Are the same temp jobs of a few weeks without any benefits being counted again every month? Are they ever substracted?
7
we liked Obama better, but let's not pretend the economy was better under his reign.
The current job market is better, the economy has grown quite well, and wages are now rising.
yes, some of are down, or depressed. Don't pretend those feelings didn't exist three years ago.
Are we better off, in general, than 3 years ago. Absolutely, yes.
2
@Lets be Honest
Presidents do not reign.
The economy grew 3.5 % under Obama. It has grown 1% under El Trumpo.
In 1979 the median wage in today's dollars was $43K. The median wage today is $45K. Yet the "economy" has tripled in size. Where is that $4K raise Trump promised everyone?
BTW Obama paid down the debt, fixed the last disaster the republicans caused, and grew the economy 3.5%.
20
Trump definitely is not helping those suffering from Trump depression syndrome (TDS). TDS is going to be worsening as the severity of TDS now that any chance that he will be removed from office before presidential election in 2020 will not happen and who knows he may even get reelected not that the economy has helped me personally but I am happy for millions of my fellow Americans who have found jobs which they did not have before and happier for millions others who have benefited from the Trump economy by NOT tinkering with social security, Medicare and Mediacid or the food stamps.
3
But please note that they are planning to weaken the safety net right after the next election if their plan to get reelected succeeds. Of course only after the election-- because not even teflon Trump and his cult followers could be assured of staying in power if they tried to get away with that now.
12
Mr. Kristof, thank you for your humanity, even if it only helped one or two people out of the thousands that need help. Unfortunately, what you did not mention is how the Republican/Conservative/Evangelical Axis has worked and succeeded in getting these very people to vote against their own self-interest. If the media is the massage, then you and your cohort need to make the media work for everyone, not just the R/C/E Axis that generally prevails by throwing dollar bills around rather than facts. Here is where Bloomberg may be making the biggest difference. Here is where all of the majority of the country, including those you speak about, needs to cause a change to happen. Start by offering a better Kool Aid rather than a bitter pill.
7
@Believe in balance
I have a theory that something in the way republicans use propaganda and the preachers preach has created the same psychological conditions for those "evangelicals" as those in the mind of battered spouses and abuse victims.
It looks to be willingly voluntary and they would say so themselves. If one looks at the harm inflicted one also sees there must be some psychological aspect here whose mechanism is not readily apparent. As with battered spouses and addicts the true source of the self destructive behavior is complex and hard to define until the victim recognizes there is a problem and starts to address it.
2
Trump supporters laugh at "Trump derangement syndrome" which just shows you how oblivious they are to the real, deep, widespread despair that has gripped much of the nation under the Trump administration.
13
'one that helped elect him but that he has neglected since'
Lying. It is not true at all that he neglected any one who supported him, the opposite is far more likely. I long stopped expecting anything reasonable or objective from any of the NYT 'opinion' writers, Kristof being one of the sorriest examples, but it is just ugly and downright shameful to blame Trump and not the American society for the suicide crisis. In America, whoever is the president, money comes first, people come hundredth. I will not even waste time on the perverse wish that the economy crashes in order for Dems to win ...
1
We should better define what "the economy" actually is.
To my eye has had nothing to do with investments on Wall Street since the reagan administration set loose the vulture capitalist predations that destroyed the carefully designed profitable economy we had. In fact that name "vulture" is a misnomer as vulture's prey on carrion but the things they destroyed were not dead.
The fact is if we do not have manufacturing, steel mills, autos, appliances etc here building these things from the ground up we are not producing wealth we are spending what we had. So no matter what the numbers are we are not growing we are shrinking every single day Bethlehem and all the rest of those places have been closed.
Robert Reich also has a similar take to me. this is from last spring https://www.truthdig.com/articles/robert-reich-americas-economy-is-unsustainable/ if you find his website or FB page he also has a new video out this week with up to date data shoing these same points.
8
I have a really hard time believing anything that comes out of this administration, particularly the employment and unemployment figures.
15
It’s happening here a lot. Young high schoolers in wealthy north west suburb of Boston, are depressed and their mental health is not adequately addressed. Many commit suicide. Our friends have led marches drives fundraisers marathons races, efforts to educate people here about suicide prevention early detection of depression. Everyone is asking why! We have nothing missing, all material needs are met, clothing shelter food, in abundance. Then why this hollowness!
6
This crisis is absolutely not invisible for those with a college degree.
I know many, many grads (both undergraduate and graduate) looking for work or caught in endless cycles of internships, coffee and restaurant jobs notwithstanding.
19
Just about everyone will be dealing with illness as they age, when they are no longer able to participate in the workforce and benefit from the improving economy. They will no t be able to replace what they lost during the recession.
9
My concern is that the growth in economic aggregates has been fueled by tax cuts leading to huge unsustainable deficits. A tipping point will eventually be reached, as we experienced in the 70s, when the combined effect of the Vietnam war debt and OPEC oil price shocks triggered double-digit inflation, soaring interest rates, and a prolonged period of economic "stagflation."
Of course the pain will not be shared equally. Inflation inflates stock prices along with food and rent, and higher interest rates provide higher income for those with cash to invest, leading to ever worsening inequality.
9
There's plenty go real work to do for people without a college degree. Unfortunately, because of our near-religious belief that socially-sponsored work is somehow sinful, these people are being denied jobs and the needed work is not getting done.
There's no way to make money on fixing a bridge or a road, building a school, restoring a degraded environment, or providing free public education. These kinds of work, and many others, have to be funded by society as a whole. But we have this crazy idea that government-supported jobs are wrong, and that if there's no way for private industry to make a profit performing some needed work, it simply can't be done.
19
I'd like to know how the Foothold Index is doing under Trump's leadership. By that I mean the measure of the ability of young Americans to move out of their parents home and afford their own housing, health insurance, car payment, insurance, education, etc etc. The jobs numbers are great, all my kids have one.
9
What’s forgotten is that, among college educated, many lost everything in 2008, including their jobs. Those over 45 years old, never got a job as good as the one that was downsized. Not to mention that many blew through their retirement savings to augment the lower paid jobs they have now. Add on the tax cut debacle that has cost those living in blue high tax states, and the Trump boom has really been a bust.
16
Aggregate statistics about the economy are meaningless when it comes to describing the lives of individuals and families. To say that "average wage" went up 3% doesn't tell me about the reality of any particular person -- the "average person" is an not a person at all, but an abstraction.
Likewise, the "average unemployment rate" doesn't tell me anything about a particular person's ability to find a job, particularly a job that pays the rent and bills.
Economists use these abstractions because that's what they've been trained to do. They only consider people as abstract units in equations, never as living humans like themselves.
So, all that chatter about how much better the Main Street economy is doing is just a lot of overfluffed abstraction.
On top of all that, the supposed growth on Wall Street is a simply a massive asset bubble, made possible by the Trillions (with a T) of dollars fed into the investment economy by Trump's tax cut to the wealthy, the ongoing Quantitative Easing that keeps interest rates low, and the almost-hidden influence of the New York Fed and the money it pours into the purchase-repurchase (repo) market to benefit hedge funds.
This fantasy economy going to blow, and sooner rather than later. Maybe we should just let the Republicans stay in office to reap their own whirlwind.
But then again, they'd only use a new Depression to make things worse for everyone else.
So, no. Vote Blue!
11
This is the problem with America-- success predicated on one's hoarding of the green frog skin; the "I'll get mine and then be generous" ethic. Well, look no further than the Oval Office to see how that is working out. Then look no further than to his Church of the Devoted MAGA, and note how the pews have thinned out, casualties to the opioid epidemic. There is a void in America that neither money nor trump will ever fill.
4
Many felt marginalized under Obama with little upside.
4
Another Slam-Trump article in the NYT.
You spent 8 years under Obama telling us everything was super wonderful due to Obama. A Starbucks job was added to job growth #s and celebrated.
Trump brings back manufacturing jobs, does prison reform and gets jobs for former inmates, gets lowest unemployment #s, and what does the NYT do?
Say Trump is horrible.
Sorry bitter libs. No, not everyone is successful. The Left made the Obama years sound like perfection. If you didn't agree then you were racist. Suffering people could not be featured. They went against the Perfect Obama narrative.
Then Trump was elected. With better results (get rid of your hate and accept it). Then we're told that things that improved under Trump are not real.
Tell that to yourselves when Trump is re-elected in a landslide.
3
What a fool you are. Do you not realize that the Trump job numbers include Starbucks and Walmart too? Tell us you whole story to prove how much better you’re doing. Everyone’s been doing better in the last 10 years because it took that long to dig out of the ditch that greed created. Greed is back and it will cause the same plummet again.
10
"...but indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices...
Don't sell yourself short, Nick...
Even as we chit-chat, indignant anti-Trump ads have gone positively nuclear...
Like U-238 – the domestic supply seems endless...
PS
Nominee or not, Mike's already forced Trump to up his game...
Bigly…
Rather than running against a UBI, socialism, free Medicare/college for all – or all 3...
Trump's having to run against someone who could make America even greater, second time around...
PPS
And, Liz and Bernie – and anyone else who think's hizzoner's buying votes...
Would wager he's putting in as much time each day with Dems and prospective voters, as either of you...
PPPS
And that stop-and-frisk – got to be a better way…
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/us/new-year-shootings.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/08/nyregion/bronx-cops-shot-nypd.html
2
"But Case says that even so, almost half of Americans aged 25 and over with only a high school diploma are no longer in the labor force."
They leave the house to attend a trump rally then go back into their holes waiting for deliverance from the very people who marginilize them.
Baaa Baaa Baaa
3
@dave The question is, to me, why are there so many Americans with only a high school diploma. True, college is not for everyone, I fully agree. However, there is also a labor shortage in the skilled trades fields; try to find an unemployed plumber or welder if you doubt that and these fields do not need a degree, just an apprenticeship program.
We need to put equal emphasis to steering talented individuals into these sorts of fields as we do in college.
5
What a bunch of dummies. The Trump economy hasn’t even hit yet. Give it two more years and when the recession hits that’s the Trump economy. What fools these mortals be.
11
Usually the Democrats take over when the price of the Republican policies have to be paid, and are blamed when the country is paying the costs, as has been reoccurring regularly since the election of Jimmy Carter.
8
By every positive educational, health, housing and socioeconomic measure black African Americans at every level are about 2x worse off than their nominal white European American peers.
' We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. It landed on us' Malcolm X
See ' The Souls of Black Folk' W.E B. DuBois; ' The Mis--Education of the Negro' Carter G. Woodson: ' The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In an Age of Colorblindness' Michelle Alexander: ' The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and The Making of American Capitalism' Edward Baptist; ' Dog-Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class' Ian Haney Lopez
7
Fully agree about the bifurcation of American society. Trump has played that very well indeed. Amazingly, he attracts the blue collar downtrodden with his angry, racist rhetoric, while winking at the upper class, who understand what he's up to - keeping the downtrodden in their place. Masterful!
It is toxic in the extreme, and may lead to revolution. But he doesn't care. It keeps him in power. What a jerk!
8
Uh, Nick, lets get serious.
Its the President's Fault that people are committing suicide?
The NYTs Editors actually approve of and print your ridiculous conspiracy theory???
Do you have to be a half empty cup to post a comment?
The first Trump election featured the Democrats abandoning and losing the working class vote.
The second Trump election will feature the Democrats losing the Black and minority vote.
The only people to be left in the Democrat party will be hand wringing white Liberals whining about how everyone else is racist.
If I were a Democrat, I would be depressed.
Can you blame Russia for Blacks abandoning their oppressors? Go ahead and try.
2
When the Amish make a quilt, they always leave a least one mistake When it is finished there are two ways to look at it. One, just to find the flaw and another looks at the quilt as a whole. This article is only interested in the flaws and there are many. But there is a lot of good that has take place in the past three years.The economy had its longest run of success ever. Unemployment is the lowest in half a century. Unemployment for minorities including African Americans, their youth, Hispanics, and women is the lowest ever. Wages have expanded and the poverty level for African Americans is the lowest ever. Of course there are problems but these minorities have been given empty promises for decades. Seven Million jobs have been created . The handicapped who were losing jobs prior to Trump are up at least 7%-11%. improvement. Long lasting problems do not evaporate all at one time. It's incremental. Universal free health care and higher education given by the government may sound good but it comes under government control and a huge tax burden that can be over 50%. They have both in China but the government controls which schools and what the curriculum will be as well as who gets what medical care and when. One thing would help everyone's health care cost. Do something to reverse the explosive cost of medicines. Have we heard one word about this? NO. But this is one flaw that is fixable. It just requires a will to fix it.
3
Many who support Turnip are gleeful at the thought of "owning the libs," the consequence of embracing Turnip's vengeance mentality. They nurture their resentful grievances, jealous and angry at those fortunate enough to prosper. They are especially angry at the idea of women and minorities gaining ground; can't have that. Turnip supporter Crystal Minton of Florida said it best when she was upset at being furloughed during the government shutdown: "He's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting!"
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/8/18173678/trump-shutdown-voter-florida
What kind of people want to hurt other people?
That reality causes depression and despair among the solid majority of American, but their fear for their families and their country is motivating them to get out the vote, to whump Trump and boot Poot.
9
NM What is happening to you should never be allowed in a developed nation and I am truly sorry for your terrible situation, but that I’d the difference between living in America where” Socialism” that cares for all its citizen Is a dirty word among so many particularly wealthy people unless of course they hit a rough spot in the riad as our banking class did in 2007 when their bad bets and sheer greed almost took down the worlds economy and boy were they all for social then, socializing the debt as they continued to privatize the profit that is. Yours is an excellent example of why nothing less than taking down the distinguished healthcare system and replacing it with single payer as Bernie Sanders proposes is so necessary. The bought and paid for nay sayers want you to believe incremental steps ala Obama Care will work, well that’s a lie if anyone thinks big insurance, big pharma and the majority of Wall Street owned medical practices will allow the gravy train to end people are delusional, the best example is right now when the ACA first surfaced the immediate response was to drop Medicare people as fees were lowered or go concierge and take only the number as required by law. The only way to end the horrible plight of folks such as yourself is join the rest of the world in single payer at half the cost, don’t believe the candidates in the back pockets of big bucks healthcare want you to believe, like so much else it’s a big lie.
5
They never should have been fired but I am happy the two Good Samaritan women got their job back.
6
Thank-you for this column, as it really helps understand why some voters have given into the fear and divisive nature of this presidential administration. Their circumstances are totally without hope if our government doesn't respond. No wonder the increase in deaths, that is there only way out. Trump offered the simple persuasion, that 'he alone could fix it' and they bought into his con. He never cared for anyone that couldn't add to his power and wealth. Why should he now? He has cheated his whole life and considers anyone suffering as 'suckers'. He said, he 'loved low information voters' not because he cares about the oppressed, but because they are easily conned into voting for him. Justice must be served. The day of reckoning will come. The blood of these victims is on this president and the Republicans in leadership, especially McConnell, whom gained a tax break for themselves and donors, while stalling on other bipartisan bills that would improve the lives of the masses, so these deaths don't continue. To the Evangelical leaders, I ask, where is your compassion and love for those Jesus loved? How can you speak of a God of love and be so heartless to those in need, to support such an administration? Praying that God's word speaks to your hearts and minds and convicts and leads you to speak truth to power. God is not mocked, you will reap what you sow.
3
The strength of our economy is only at the top; have you not heard about the 1%. I can't go into all the details that you should be aware of. There is tremendous instability in this country among the lower 90% and certainly a horror of instability in the lower 50 %.
The instability is caused by the oligarchy and corruption in DC that causes the above described situation. Many millions in this country live paycheck to paycheck, suicides increase, death rates of mid-life people is increasing and job security is gone. Climate change is upon us and the world oligarchies grow.
The Dems cannot give the people hope because they are bought off by oligarchs just as the Republicans are bought off. Simple corruption.
Health care is a disaster. It is a nonsensical negotiation racket which plagues the Kafkaesque bureaucracy that is US healthcare
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) was a Czech-born German-language writer whose surreal fiction vividly expressed the anxiety, alienation, and powerlessness of the individual in the 20th century. Kafka's work is characterized by nightmarish settings in which characters are crushed by nonsensical, blind authority. Thus, the word Kafkaesque is often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening.
The last few sentences above are from a must see video by a group of very smart people:
https://www.rt.com/shows/front-running/480309-medicare-health-proposal-campaign/
2
The pain could be from a lack of healthcare, not "universal healthcare." My toothache isn't worse because you have one, too.
1
It’s insane that the folks who bow down to trump are those very people who are & will be hurt the most by his policies. The Federalist Society & their old white men mentality must be loving the way the rich get richer & the poor are either stagnant or worse off.
6
I find it harder and harder to muster sympathy for these Americans who vote for Donald Trump, and in the face of all evidence, continue to vote against their economic interests, and suffer for it, for no reason whatsoever but their own dumb, engrained racial prejudice.
4
Yes, there continue to be substantial problems in our country, but when the Dem agenda is exclusively dedicated to the removal of the President, you'd never know it. If they cared more about attempting to fix some of these problems, then they do about constantly beating their "we hate Trump" drum, we might actually get something done.
3
These last two articles are making me a fan of Nicholas Kristof.
5
To me the strong economy is due to Barak Obama, who fixed the Republican-created recession while the Republicans were chanting "I hope he fails". Every time some stupid Republican tells me that the economy should encourage me to vote Republican, I'm instead reminded to vote Democrat.
7
Brace for impact.
5
More proof we are living in the last days and we are in the latter part of said days with the end of this system of things on our doorstep. I for one welcome the end of this system and the ushering in of the Kingdom of God to rule to time indefinite. Those who are meek and acknowledge Gods right to rule will be able to live in peace, harmony, paradise and prosperity to time indefinite on this Earth.
@DG
Living in a cult helps nothing. They tell you you are happy, but in your heart you know that’s not true.
Really think this out. What would happen if only your kind were left? How would the things we take for granted like airlines, food distribution, power, communications not fall apart? This isn’t real.
It’s a fantasy. You’re sacrificing your life, and the lives of those in your household for a fantasy that is making a few old men in NY very wealthy and a lot of other people unhappy while supporting a culture of exploitation (see the Oxygen special).
It’s never too late to escape a cult.
Been there done that.
7
See Robert Reich Trump's Economy Revealed https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/videos/788394718324710/UzpfSTEwMDAwMzc5MDk5OTYxMzoxNzY0NTY5OTYwMzQ2MDIw/
a clear and simple description with drawings of where we really are and are going.
5
"There is not a %100.00 percent of anything!"
The Cameleon
Unfixable. Old. Left behind.
1
If you are suffering from a mental health problem in America, the best solution is to leave and start life over in a country that is not itself insane.
6
Andrew Cecere still has his job. That pretty much makes your point.
The average household net worth in America is not $800,000. Please re-read the graph
3
The latest edition of The Atlantic includes an article highly relevant to this column: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/great-affordability-crisis-breaking-america/606046/?fbclid=IwAR0UXhTsTOLxkvWl72oB7DdL6991ofaR6G0YEm7GRQ01Zq3BQq1wW7BDnLI
3
Do you think Trump cares about ANYONE other than himself?
8
Trump is a clear and present danger to us in America and quite possibly the world - Maybe through violence, his pyramiding poor decisions and even probably a financial threat……
The man is sociopathically dishonest with no discernible off switch………..
Hopefully for the good of us all I do underestimate him -
But then again,
Might his supporters be grossly overestimating him - drinking the Kool-Ade …………..
None of us lived in the 1930's Germany so we can only imagine what it was like -
God forbid under Donald Trump we are becoming a twenty-first century version of that disastrous, fascist, totalitarian government experiment
AND
That is my fear, my concern today………….
9
I HATE LIVING IN THIS COUNTRY RIGHT NOW AND ITS BECAUSE OF TRUMP AND THE REPUBLICANS. IT IS MAKING ME INSANE. I CANNOT STAND THE UNREALITY OF IT!
7
Thanks Mr Kristoff for a very informative and compassionate column. We need many more - with more facts, good analysis and compassion. That is the practical ability to really change things.
One issue I would pick with you is the idea that "output is surging". A closer look at economic data of the past decade shows the opposite.
Since the Great Recession of 2008-09, economic growth has averaged barely half what it was in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Investment is down from those peaks too. Worryingly overall American purchases of automobiles are way down from their mid-1990 highs.
Why is this? Let me put you a hypothesis : Growth is down because inequality has reached such proportions that broad-based consumer demand has slackened substantially. In other words, impoverished people in their tens of millions do not continue to consume as they did in the past.
This is a silent but clear warning for American capitalism - and global capitalism generally : Absent major efforts to reverse rising inequality, capitalism will fail to generate sustainable returns.
As a capitalist, I believe we need to be more enlightened. We urgently need public good investment on a huge scale in education and training, infrastructure, clean energy, a stronger updated social safety net. Regionally this needs to reach into the poorer states of the USA in particular. Without this, in another decade we will bellowing at even worse problems.
7
Thank you, I agree that we shouldn’t have to rely on one newspaper column to help one person when the problem is systemic. Fair pay and health care aren’t evil socialist plots. Just common sense. Voting against your own best interests is one of the root causes at play here.
10
It's always interesting to see the President's approval rising when there is good news about the economy. The dubious linkage is the interesting part. What, specifically, can President Trump, or ANY President, do to improve the economy? Bully the Fed into stomping on the gas pedal of low interest rates? It's not that significant as it affects short-term borrowing from lenders, which most businesses never do and which simply loosens up the cash flow incrementally.
If anyone asked me, a follower of twenty news sources, what President Trump has done to stimulate the economy and keep its ten year streak going, I wouldn't have an answer. He's eased rules for heavy polluters and the fossil fuel industry, yes. If you're a skeptic, there's not much President Trump has done for the general economy. But there are some things he can do.
As an example, I'd love to see a job skills initiative to promote vocational education for "middle skills" jobs - welding, CNC and other machining, auto repairs, HVAC, plumbing and electrical, etc. It would help fix the huge problem we have in the USA of finding good people to fill jobs. Maybe add a low-cost government competitor to private health insurance so small business could afford to hire more people. Free trade would also be helpful.
Show me why we should vote for a candidate, and I will do it, but for now I don't see how most Presidents, including the current one, have earned the right to be applauded for the economy.
5
Great to hear the Gilbert story update. And yes, light should not have to be shined on injustices like that in order for the right thing to be done. What needs to be done is unionizing to take the power back to labor and away from ruthless corporations.
5
Until we understand the pernicious effects of inequality - not just for those who are poor but for all of us - I am afraid nothing will be done.
Research shows that airplanes with a first class section where economy passengers enter through that section have 4 tiems the number of air rage incidents than those where there is no such section.
Several British economists have documented area after area where inequality (not poverty) results in negative outcomes (higher rates of incarceration, lower math scores, and on an on).
Obviously - at least to me - the moral and ethical responsibility in a wealthy society is to do something about those who struggle.
But until we realize that It costs all of us I fear we will do nothing.
5
as a 64 year old recent retiree in IT I have a take that I have not mentioned. When I graduated high school in 73 there were so many jobs in railroad, phone company, defense work(in Conn, auto work in Mich) that many considered it dumb to go to college as you could make 15-20k right out of high school. I had not connection to get these jobs so I took engineering and got a job at 12k in 78 but did not catch up to these other guys until about 1990 or so. However with deregulation, outsourcing, automation many of these high paying jobs disappeared in the 90s and I saw many bitter guys(mostly) who had lost the ability to learn and were making too much to go backwards. So many divorces, foreclosures, etc and their kids were not able to cope. Rosanne type TV shows glorified anti intellectualism and made people pursing knowledge into "nerds". We can't make this happen again as it was an offshoot of our victory in WW2 but so many guys are hopeful for the "good old days" and look to Trump for validation. The last guy who "could" have done this was Perot but that was 30 yrs ago and that toothpaste is long out of the tube
13
A college degree in a red state such as Idaho does not guarantee living-wage employment. Historically, Idaho has been a low wage state -- and those of us who have lived here for a long time have not earned enough to keep up with the significant rise in the cost of living. Boise is now the 50th most expensive place to live in the U.S.
Add to that, the influx of people and investors from out-of-state who have driven the cost of housing sky high. For older people such as myself and young couples, it's impossible to buy a home at Idaho wage levels. Long-time homeowners are suddenly facing property taxes that are so high (thanks to an overheated real estate market driven by those out-of-staters) that many are being forced to sell with nowhere to go. Rents are just as crazy. Landlords are raising rents every six months or so "to keep up with the market" or "because my property taxes are so high."
And if you are over 50, forget finding meaningful employment -- even with a college degree or two. The age discrimination is blatant and out-of-control. And I'm still feeling the financial effects of the Recession.
The myth of a "great economy" is just that -- a myth. The job numbers can be manipulated to show whatever results you want. The reality is bleak for those of us who struggle with getting by day to day. I grew up in an upper-middle-class family...and certainly never expected to be in this position.
20
Depressing, maybe i should not have read it.
3
"In the 1930s, President Franklin Roosevelt worked hard to address the Depression with the New Deal."
Try and put together a coalition a FDR did and you'll be torn to pieces for working with certain groups.
Oh wait, that person is waiving a "Don't Tread on Me" flag - he's out. Although it's not clear which of the Founding Fathers (or as Pelosi says "The Founders"} are currently in favor with the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Hamilton is definitely in, while others apparently can only be quoted anonymously as Pelosi did.
There's a person who feels it's right to stand during the National Anthem. Hey, he's dissing us - just another sign of his white privilege!
If he Democrats ever get serious about building a working class coalition be sure to let folks know.
Otherwise save your hypocritical white liberal guilt. I've seen and heard enough of it to last several lifetimes. Public school desegregation in NYC anyone? We know the answer to that one.
Now, back to hammering on the folks in flyover country.
3
I highly recommend the movie "The Pharmacists" now playing on Netflix as a follow up to Kristoff's column.
2
Watch the economy tank this year!
3
“It’s pretty good but worse than you think” seems to be Democrats’ emerging campaign slogan
And these "forgotten people" will once again vote against their self interests in 2020, in favor of a heartless and isolated GOP who couldn't care less about them once they get their vote. I hope their resentment against people of color, gay people, and their useless pursuit of ending abortion is worth it. But Hillary was a crook and misused emails, right? Guess they showed us.
4
If all of these people would vote Democratic we would get rid of Trump. If we got rid of Trump they would be somewhat better off. However they’re voting Raiders going to be pretty low. And a lot of them will vote for Trump because even though their situation is bad they’re worried that minorities blacks and Hispanics might becomeAs well off as they are. I don’t know if they realize how much republican party lies over the last 40 years have hurt them. These policies have greatly wicked labor laws. They have kept down the minimum wage laws. If these people don’t get out in mass and vote for the Democrats then they will just have to suffer.
2
Let’s face facts. Debt service doesn’t matter to rich folk.
Debt services causes homelessness for the minimum wage adult ,service industry dweeb.
Yet we are encouraged to purchase in credit as if we do not need to ,or should not ,pay off the balance completely ,every bill cycle. We are choked with interest and deep debt.
No one in America can live well without a living wage of $50000 per year.
And we need to start paying in cash again. The tech giants and banks would love us cashless with a visa chip in our literal wrist to scan.
Sick society made sicker by low intellect trump fest. Such a disaster America. Self propagating projection.
7
"Yet we live in two Americas, and there’s another side of the country that Trump didn’t mention"
True. Where has this truth been in the NYT?
Where was it in 2016 when the Democrats campaigned on how great things were?
Yes, Trump just has more of the Obama economy. AND THAT WAS A PROBLEM. Where have you been?
6
My news sources, including The Times, say that Trump's business shenanigans and screwings did cause economic malaise for many and predate his presidency.
9
GoodBrain's economy has "grown" the same way (R)eagan's and Chickenhawk George's did - by exploding our debt. Since 1980, the (R)s economic "policy" has consisted of grabbing the taxpayer's national credit card, borrowing it beyond it's credit limit, giving most of that borrowed money to the Pluto-Corporatocracy, throwing a few orts to GoodBrain's beloved "uneducated people" in order to make 'em think they're getting richer while scaring the squat out of them with gay marriage and racism. And the saps keep falling for it.
Borrowing a Yooge chunk of cash and putting it in your bank account does NOT mean that you are richer. Sooner or later, the debt will be paid - by our beloved progeny if not by us.
7
The economy will not re-elect Trump, racism will.
10
Frog says to fish, "how's the water"?
Fish says, "what water?"
we can't see what were are swimming in and too familiar and close to...
question for you dear reader, and for Mr.Kristof: "how's the echo chamber"?
2
If the working class continues to vote in Donald Trump and the party of Slytherin, there's not much we can do to help them.
7
Amazing that almost half of the country supports the corrupt, clueless, crude and compromised Trump.
Obama's recommendation: "Don't boo. Vote!"
9
People aren't so foolish to believe an article like this one. Are you saying that the democrats are the salvation for the downtrodden? Only if they live in the 10 or less states that will decide elections when your candidates rid the country of the electoral college. The countries numbers are solid and growing and we know our President loves our country and doesn't apologize for being an American overseas, like our last President. You guys hate Iowa, and other small states, but you are out for the "Little Guy"? Just eliminating the NY habit of charging the country for your unsustainable employee benefits through Sate Tax rebate was a great decision. Stopped that party and more to come. You are not the darling state in this Presidency. You are an annoyance!
Trump's bragging about America's wealth is like the rest of his brags - greatly overstated. Among the world's richest nations, America is not even in the top 10.
When Obama was president the United States ranked 9th among the richest countries in the world. Now it ranks No. 11.
Link: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-richest-countries-in-the-world-2016-3#10-switzerland--gdp-per-capita-56815-39458-16
Link: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2019/11/06/25-richest-countries-in-the-world-3/4/
5
So glad for the follow up. I was one of the indignant readers and had my outraged comment published here.
The NYTIMES is not exactly grass roots but there is something here about reaching a demographic with a simple story of corporate mismanagement and getting results. From your article! Unfortunately Donald and fox use this technique on a larger scale but don’t use the truth. How can the formula be switched? You mentioned toothache and dentist. It never occurred to me UHC would cover teeth and eyes! How can messages like this be spread? Is there a source that can reach “those” republicans that only get their news from the above mentioned fake-sources by loud-mouthed, self serving propagandists?
3
The Democrats' campaign phrase this year should be "It isn't the economy, stupid!"
Any older white man with a ton of money and frankly racist views would have won the 2016 election. And this is all it will take for Trump to win the next one. There is only one issue that drives Trump voters, and that is race. White resentment, albeit divorced from any factual support, has been building for decades. Trump voters (the majority of whites) do not vote their pocketbooks. They are single issue voters despite their claims to dislike "identity politics". All of these folks who voted for Trump and are still "left behind" will line up to vote for him again.
Their views have recreated the Republican party as nothing more than a party for white nationalism. And Trump voters are all still in lockstep with him - even those who have been most hurt by his economic policies.
And for the expansion of white nationalism in this country, Trump voters will trade away any chance at living in the middle class, the rule of law, fair and honest elections, and even their Constitutional rights.
Whites will be the single largest voting bloc for many years to come. Democrats can "fine tune" their messages and run the "ideal" candidate, but they will never win the support of Trump voters because to do so would require embracing bigotry. And Trump voters want only to be told that they are the only "real" Americans. And this is all it will take for him to win again.
4
Much of the apparent economic good news is an illusion driven by high values of stocks and real estate. But this is not sustainable, and may well crash in 2020. See, for example:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/02/investor-beware-these-4-economic-trends-could-caus.aspx
6
"I Repeat"
"Nothing is %100.00 percent!"
The Cameleon
Much of the apparent economic good news is an illusion driven by high values of stocks and real estate. But this is not sustainable, and may well crash in 2020. See, for example:
https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/02/02/investor-beware-these-4-economic-trends-could-caus.aspx
3
Andrew Yang is the one Democratic candidate who has been talking about this for months. But he doesn't get recognition for it in columns like this. Nick, maybe you give Andrew a hand with a quick nod in your columns - not much, just a quick mention to get his name out there.
6
It's true the Republicans do nothing for the Americans sold down the river by profiteering globalists, but Deficit Don at least SAYS he's looking out for them, and that's why he was elected and why he'll probably even win the popular vote next time.
The Democrats extended health care access in the blue states, but that's all they did or say they want to do, and a free trip to the doctor isn't enough to restore the dignity of someone with no job, no way to pay the bills, and a kid hooked on fentanyl.
But, sure, Democrats, let's keep talking about white supremacy. Let's keep talking about helping illegal immigrants and convicted felons. Let's keep talking about the .001% of the .002% of the population who are transgender but want to serve in an authoritarian, hyper-disciplined environment (the military) anyway. Let's give the Republicans enough votes to build a 60 seat majority in the Senate.
Because that's where anyone who followed Iowa through the debates and the caucus-cum-dumpster fire would have to assume we're heading.
6
I’m glad even limousine liberals are waking up to the fact that the economy isn’t working for the majority.
And you don’t have to be an “expert” to come to that conclusion. All you have to do is open your eyes to all the misery around us.
Too bad these same limousine liberals remained silent while Obama bailed out the banks and evicted millions of homeowners (mostly POC), and oversaw the largest transfer of wealth from the working class to the already rich, greedy parasites we call euphemistically “elites”, “job creators”, or simply millionaires and billionaires.
People all over the world do nothing but struggle day in day out right now while these billionaires accumulate ungodly amounts of wealth, in its wake ruining entire cities with gentrification and new buildings whose architecture is utterly repulsive, like a cancerous metastatic explosion (especially NY. Thanks, Mike).
Yet, no matter who we, the serfs and peons, vote for, the plundering of humanity by a global financial oligarchy continues unabated.
The world’s 500 richest people control more wealth than the gross domestic product of the United States at the end of the third quarter of 2019, which was $5.4 trillion.
The vast redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top of society is the outcome of decades-long policies of capitalist governments and parties around the world, nominally “left” as well as right, dedicated to the ever greater impoverishment of the working class and enrichment of the ruling elite.
7
If a presidential candidate—some theoretical Democrat, for instance—were to appropriate Reagan’s question and ask, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?” tens of millions of Americans would answer, “No.”
4
the median income---for which half of the population is above, and half below---should be used rather than the average.
because of the skewness of the income distribution, the median would be well below the average.
6
I wonder when the Trump cult will wake up.
Trump doesn’t care about you.
Trump doesn’t even know where you live.
Trump doesn’t do public service.
Trump does trump.
You’ve all been fooled.
By a New York real estate scam artist just looking to enrich himself.
11
@Jane
That would be treason and require using a brain (a liberal construct).
2
and more Americans die every two weeks from drugs, alcohol and suicide — “deaths of despair” — than died in 18 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Funny how a balanced speech on the State of the Union might have included a fact like this.
But no. It’s morning in great America again, I guess.
6
I hope we start considering a different perspective. Kate Raworth and doughnut economics seems compelling to me. Please take a look. https://www.ted.com/talks/the_ted_interview_kate_raworth_argues_that_rethinking_economics_can_save_our_planet/up-next
1
No doubt, the Trumpy stance is, as with the opioid epidemic he's done little to solve, the sooner "these people" die, the better, as the problem resolves itself.
Trump openly admired how Duterte attacked the Filipino drug problem through brute squads and assassinations.
Trump is jealous he can't do that, so his version is to neglect until it goes away, distracting from the negligence with constantly repeated deceptions of success.
Trump twittles while America burns.
4
In a culture in which the poor and struggling to get by are castigated as being dull and lazy, it is difficult for such a person to maintain a semblance of self respect amid such opulent wealth and waste.
The victims end up accepting the verdict of their society of their worth, or lack of it, and end by victimizing themselves and their families.
9
Quality comment.
6
Citizens United the gift that keeps on giving. When a corporation or foreign government can spend as much s they want to buy influence for their benefit of the rich at the expense of the people.Our system is broken. How depressing is then fact the the haves are getting richer at the expense of the have not's.
Corporations are not people. They are tools of class warfare that are used by the rich to exploit wealth at the expense of working and middle class citizens.
When is one of the Democratic candidates for President going to stand up and say that they will repeal the single largest threat to our Democracy. We can not let this continue.
The time for leadership to save what is left of our democracy is now. Repeal Citizens united now. Set term limits for the senate. Suicide, depression, drug use will all go down. And if we are lucky we will once again be a country that is an admired throughout the world.
9
@John, Bernie Sanders wants to repeal Citizens United.
5
The questions is whether the other half of America will show up to vote. At some point it all seems so futile.
7
Congratulations on achieving some justice for Abigail Gilbert and Emily James. And yes, indignant columns aren't scalable solutions for such travesties -- what we need are a million Nicholas Kristofs who listen and pay attention to the plights of others. Thank you for continuing to advocate for the forgotten poor.
7
Maybe we need more humanism in politics and cultural life.
5
The saddest point of all those not sharing in the economic strength is that 90% of them are MEGA's who every year starting with Reagan have doubled down on their bets on Red even though the house never paid off.
5
Let’s take a look at this employment thing just a little more closely.
Are 60-something tech folks thrown out of long, successful careers by layoffs getting equivalent jobs back, respecting their experience, with pay and benefits to match their previous efforts?
Nope.
Are college graduates, loaded with unimaginable quantities of debt upon graduation, finding top-quality paying jobs in their field, commensurate with the expertise they’ve achieved through four years of hard and expensive work in college?
Nope.
Are those same college kids after a few years getting great promotions and salary increases and bonuses to reflect their hard-working efforts, either in the company they’re in, or in a step up the ladder with a new job?
Nope.
Are people who get laid off in the midst of the “creative destruction” of capitalism able to stay in their state, even, without a new, horrendous, life-destroying commute to their new job? Or do they have to uproot family, leave friends, pull their kids from school every 2-4 years to start over somewhere else, poorer and less established?
The latter.
I could go on for pages and pages and pages, to describe scenarios this bad or much, much worse, for everyone except the poster-child high school graduate white non-working male the media lives to point to as the only “victims” of this system.
Hooray for Capitalism! The Big Lie is Back.
10
Trump is totally riding Obama’s coattails on the economy. Obama deserves all the credit.
As for the mental health of the nation, Trump (and the antics of his administration) exacerbated my depression these past three-plus years. It intensified election night 2016. I haven’t been well since.
6
There is another dimension of our lives that contributes to a particular kind of depression: awareness of the severe degradation of the values at the root of our country, such as those embodied in the Constitution and other founding documents. We have yet to live up fully to them but most citizens recognize them as worthy of aspiration.
Donald J Trump plainly does not acknowledge or support them. Worse still, he goes out of his way to dispose of them. It is deeply depressing to see his smirking mug, hear or read his ignorant, arrogant account of himself and of what is going on in the world, and to know that he is in a position to represent our country. From his perspective, we'll know that God has blessed America when its population is 100% white and Christian.
Those among us who aren't subject to the forms of depression Mr. Kristof describes here may well be counting the blessings they do enjoy. But the poisonous, dispiriting vapors emanating from the mean and incompetent occupant of the White House suffuse the land. It certainly doesn't help to be reminded that the majority of U.S. Senators are craven enablers of Trump's daily desecrations.
9
I wonder if Mr. Kristof realizes how foolish he sounds to all but the dyed in the wool democrats?
He is talking about "forgotten Americans" at a time when the confidence of Americans has never been higher, when the wages of workers have gone up more than their supervisors, when the 50% of the country who owns stock see their 401Ks and IRAS increse monthly.
It is this kind of distortion and head in the sand that will get President Trump elected again.
3
I am someone who feels himself being pushed out of the Democrat party, in which I have long been active.
you would think that the hearts of the Democrats would be concerned about these issues but it is not - and here is what the Dem's are focused on.
this is an actual invitation mailed to me by the head of the Democratic party in my town, to attend a caucus to help determine the Mass senate candidate
“On Feb 29 we’ll have two caucuses, which will be held serially. Caucus #1 – This is the traditional caucus to choose delegates to the May 30 State Convention in Lowell, MA. This year the Convention will choose the US Senate candidate to endorse. Each ward will have 4 Delegates and 4 Alternates. Thanks to a change in the rules by the state party, there will be gender balance in the total delegate count, with non-binary folks recognized and able to run as non-binary. All Northampton registered Democrats, including 16 year olds who have pre-registered and will turn 16 by 2/15/20, are eligible to both run and/or vote for delegates and alternates.”
Notice there is no discussion of poverty or ways to fix it, it is all about identity politics and 16 year olds who've never paid rent.
Which is what the Democrats have become and why they completely ignored the millions of people including many white families and poor white men, who in their minds are by definition oppressors.
Address identity politics and quotas and then we might be able to get a discussion of ideas going.
7
Excellent point. There are légions of poor and immiserated white workers, many with college degrees, working multiple $10 hr jobs, who did not know they are not alone, in not being able to pay bills or go to the dentist or keep a car- let alone afford to marry or buy a house or parent a child.
Imagine someone speaking to their situation and suggesting they unite?
5
Thank you for drawing attention to the bottom 50% of folk in this country.
6
"Deaths of despair" aren't accidents of nature: they're the ills of neo-liberalism, which over the years has thrilled so many columnists on page. The mere whisper of "free trade" was intoxicating for some.
And no wonder ... nobody here competes for his job with the third-world.
Using the megaphone of this page to shame a bank CEO into rehiring a poorly paid worker, in a lousy ill-playing job (that went unmentioned), may not be best use of it.
2
Rob Reiner.
DNC must refute Trump's lies immediately. All Trump news conferences and campaign ads and news articles must be immediately (within minutes) followed by the truth in live broadcasts from DNC headquarters.
Team of experts specifically developed and organized to stop the lies.
Rob Reiner should be the spokeperson/chairman of this DNC process/ committee.
5
@libel I understand the desire but that doesn't really work. When person A tells you something you like you become defensive when Person B says it isn't true. Then you are more likely to vote for person A. Even if B is right. The Democrats need to find a stronger message and it would be great if it was one the media spread for free like they do Trump's message of hate. Trump gets free press because he says hateful shocking things. So the Media gives him all the free press he wants. The Dem message of healthcare and a living wage doesn't get free press because it isn't 'Newsworthy' which is code for 'Outrageous'. Trump does know how to get attention.
2
@Steve
I understand it may take 10 sentences to undo a one sentence Trump lie but someone must assist the lazy press.
I agree and that is what you call education.
The DNC must take responsibility and educate the public.
3
Conspicuously absent from this article is the soaring debt and ballooning "repurchase agreement" amounts. The fed has pumped $3.9 trillion into "repurchase agreements" (overnite loans between banks) to add liquidity to the market to keep it afloat and interest rates down. The deficit is also adding $1 trillion per year and all of this provides cheap capital so corporations can buy back shares of their companies and inflate the value of the shares they hold.
Trump may be a narcissist and despicably evil, but he's not stupid. He settled the tariff war but changes the subject so no one reads the fine print. He knows how to "press the Evangelical button" by blocking abortion. The Evangelicals would sell their soul to block abortion and don't care what else Trump does. Similarly, the 401K crowd looks at their statement and rejoices. Trump knows how to keep the ill informed & selfish in line. For those of us who understand finance and the destruction to our democracy, the looming crisis is gargantuan.
8
Let's just suppose a Democratic President, with a less than great public approval rating...someone by the name of...oh!, let's just say Obama, presided over an economy which is at its best in decades. The Times and other media outlets would be working triple overtime to get him re-elected. But, in fact, Obama did not preside over such an economy (and had nothing to do with this one). Yet, the media still worked overtime to get him re-elected. So let me get this straight...the Times loves a photogenic personable President which had no real accomplishments, left the military in a state of near unpreparedness, and had no economic solutions other than almost robbing our future by borrowing from China; and then hates a less personable President who has a great deal of economic accomplishments and has restored moral within the military. The heart of this article decries the fact that those with low education levels also have low income and are faced with mental and physical problems. Does it really take a Dartmouth economist to figure out that if a person makes a decision not to pursue an educational program that leads to a decent job then that person might just have problems in life? I assume then that the writer favors patting a person on the back and saying "That's ok...you don't have to take responsibility for your life...we'll just over- tax those who do work to give you want you want anyway." I'm all for active compassion, but not for reckless entitlement.
3
@Chris, this economy is an extension of the recovery that started under Obama.
2
@Chris
The point is active compassion. Let's save reckless entitlement for corporate welfare.
3
Tragic. Simply tragic that the government schools have failed these people -- providing them no education, no skills, no path to success. Hobbes had it backwards -- its not the state of nature that is at fault. It is being dependent on an inept Leviathan that makes life for these poor people solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.
6
Anyone who believes this is a great economy is living in a comfortable world of the elite such you, I and Mr. Kristof inhabit. Take a look at the Job Quality Index. About 44% of all full time jobs pay less than $18,000 per year. The Job Quality Index indicates that the quality of jobs for people in the bottom half of job holders has been on the decline for several decades.
https://megaphone.upworthy.com/p/job-quality-employment-study
9
No question in my mind that if Trump and McConnell and the GOP eunuchs and kowtowers in Congress win a second term, there will definitely be another, and much worse Great Recession (Depression?) within the decade, and probably before a Trump second term is over. We just can't take any more years of these treasonous annual trillion dollar deficits and tax give-aways to the wealthy. It may already be too late to do anything about it.
3
Comparing mean wealth per household to median wealth reveals the extreme inequality in the US.
Switzerland, Australia and Belgium rank high in both, whereas the US is top 5 in mean wealth but drops all the way to place 18 in median.
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/which-countries-have-the-most-wealth-per-capita
6
We must stop immigration of humans, both legal and illegal, with low skills and education because they compete directly with the working class for jobs and destroy their wages. In addition, we must halt the flood of Central American so called refugees or the entire population of those countries will come here. The one percent want the deluge of immigration because it keeps wages low creating millions of desperate workers willing to take slave wages with lousy working conditions.
5
"a larger economic malaise for working-class Americans that predates Trump. It’s not his fault, but neither has he tried seriously to address it"
As someone who studies this problem : He has done more than his predecessors
Working class American fell into poverty when free trade with low wage countries was signed. After that, when private sector Unions asked for wage increases they were told; Well if you are not willing to work for what we offer, we will move the factory to Mexico.
And private sector Unions died
To his credit, Trump did something about it. Read VOX,
"Trump’s new trade deal is better for workers than NAFTA was"
The working class has no illusions about Trump. As one worker told me
Trump is an idiot but he gets the job done
Journalists will not understand workers until they see their own job outsourced or they are replaced by an immigrant willing to work for less.
Only then they will ask for protections via tariffs and immigration restriction.
3
NAFTA is only a little better for workers because Dems insisted! Trump could not possibly care less.
4
All of this are symptoms of what is wrong in this country.
First we must realize that education first through twelfth grade prepares people for the late 19th through the mid to late 20th century jobs, they don’t exist. Note that they are preparing most students for college, not the available good paying jobs. Second, because a two income household is a requirement to live, children are generally left unsupervised by parents during the day. They are supervised by people who may not care about there development. Three, most Americans think that health care should never be provided to those people. Four, the safety net should never be provided to anyone who doesn’t look like “me”, and I don’t need it so take that money use it to reduce the deficit. Five, why should I or anyone in my family be called upon to sacrifice for this country, what has it done for me. Six, my senator/congressman is great its the others who stink. Tax reductions pay for themselves. The 18 years of war hasn’t affected anyone I know, except for that guy who lives under the bridge.
But I go on.
6
These same people are not motivated by economics. They are motivated by racial hierarchy and grievance. Trump knows how to “talk” to them and keep them in line regardless of their miserable circumstances.
2
I have never experienced a successful economy brought about (or maintained) in the US by any republican party or other collection of conservatives, governmental or not. Soon to be 90 years old, I remember well enough the life and consequences of the great depression and other not so great depressions and serious recessions. I am satisfied in my retirement; I respect my needs and wants. One thing has always been radiantly obvious to me: republicans and other conservative types have never been able to discern the difference between excrement and ice cream in their discussing, advocating, propounding and-of course- debilitating by manipulating the the causes and cures of our often diseased/enfeebled economies, e.g., today's Trumpistic attempts.
4
An uninsured friend of mine in Minnesota recently used pliers and a bottle of whiskey to pull two of his teeth himself. Few Americans have dental insurance. Most Taiwanese are covered by single payer national health insurance. It is possible; single payer would save lives and $billions$ in the US.
7
It is a vain attempt to convince the MAGA-heads that Trump's economic policies are a cheat. They have completely drunk the Trump and Fox News Kool-Aid. Even those that have suffered under Trumponomics such as the farm community, have somehow convinced themselves that Trump is responsible for "the greatest economy ever." Their blindness and lack of awareness of their own misery under Trump is stunning, but it is not unexpected in a quasi-authoritarian, Goebbels-inspired regime, such as that which Trump is establishing.
4
If "our economy is the best it has ever been" (DJT sotu, 2/2020) why is there a tent-city here in West Palm Beach, FL, where President Trump's palatial mansion Mar-a-lago lies between the sea and the lake? Who can deny that our American Democracy is now in a Great Social Depression? "Hoovervilles" on the Great Smithsonian Mall in Washington, DC next? A similar 1930s poverty demographic to the 2020s today. And who is Donald Trump's great base? The low-income Americans who voted him in (a new broom?) to sweep away our democracy? The Cult of the G.O.P. who acquitted his Impeachment?
5
OK, Nick. Good column.
First off, please report on the farmers, truck drivers, etc. who supported Trump in 2016 but have had to file for bankruptcy.
What is the state of their mental health?
While you're at it, please ask each of the Republican Senators what they think of the fake Trump charity. Stole from veterans, widows, orphans and even kids with cancer. Should Congress censure such conduct?
5
All true; but why is it Nick that you didn't write such a column during the Obama years? Cherry picking failures of these economy and blaming them on President Trump is what the liberals have become very adept to as of late. Not surprisingly, the populous sees right through such hypocrisy.
1
The problem that is obvious to the many of us not benefiting is that 40 years of neo-liberal "trickle-down" economic policy does not in fact trickle down. Most of us are working multiple jobs just to get by. Many elderly, like myself, never fully recovered from the debacle of 2008 and struggle for the basics, as the poem "Food, Heat, Medicine" posted on the Blue Collar Review site at http://www.partisanpress.org describes. Wall Street does great when working people are made poorer or layed-off. It is time for a re-evaluation of priorities and a reset of economic policy -- which underscores the desperate popularity of the Sanders campaign in providing a real possibility for such a vital reset.
6
You want to unite the world to make it better? Come canvass with me for Bernie. There were lawyers and Harvard and MIT grad students out canvassing with me yesterday.
7
Sure, it's horrible how Trump neglects them, but most of them will vote for him anyway.
4
There but for the proverbial 'grace of God go all of us.' But the bootstraps narrative has become vicious, vindictive and punitive.
I don't have the energy to be angry with people in this category who voted for Trump - what angers me now are those born with bootstraps in their mouths pointing fingers at those who probably never stood a chance. We feast on the poor while blaming them for their circumstances.
Life is anything but tidy and chronic worry about money, health. housing, exacts a terrible price.
6
Mr. Kristof says, 'more Americans die every two weeks from drugs, alcohol and suicide — “deaths of despair”' -- and this is what the Republican Party feeds on. Sorry, Republican voters, but that is what drives many people to fall victim to fear and vote right-wing.
1
Nick, you should investigate the Job Quality Index. About half of the fully employed people in this society have very poor jobs. For example, about 44% of the fully employed people earn less than $18,000. To illustrate how low that figure is, consider that a 40 hr per week minimum wage job would pay a full time worker about $14,600. Understanding how bad are these low quality jobs that “the other half” must accept goes a long way in understanding why so many disgruntled people are with us in “the greatest economy ever.”
https://megaphone.upworthy.com/p/job-quality-employment-study
https://qz.com/1752676/the-job-quality-index-is-the-economic-indicator-weve-been-missing/
5
You mean Trump didn't fix that? WOW! I'm shocked. Surely you must be mistaken. I mean he promised.
4
Most people who support trump are just like him, egotistical, defensive, easy to take offense, and, most-importantly, money-oriented (not value-oriented, cash only). They truly believe that their own well-being is the be-all and end-all of living. Beyond their own "tribe", usually nuclear-family oriented, no one and nothing really matters. It does not matter if they, personally, do not have much money. The idea that their idol does and promises them more is sufficient. A narcissist has no self-doubt.
1
instead of resorting to partisan attacks one another let's accept that our government (democrats and republicans together) recently passed a 700+ billion dollar defense budget.
am i wrong to believe that all u.s. citizens would be more at peace and more productive knowing that there was a safety net to catch us if we got seriously ill?
why do we allow our representatives in d.c. to print money for war and corporate bail outs while we the actual people are left to suffer and bail ourselves out?
2
The Obama recovery has continued under Trump, with the stock market surging and corporate profits swelling.
Too bad that the stock market surging and corporate profits swelling is not the economy.
4
Were there no people suffering during Obama’s terms? Yes there were. Yes we were.
Are we better off than 3 years ago? YES. Yes we are. The economy is stronger, employment is strong, the unemployed numbers way down, and wages are rising. Those are facts.
One can dig up hear breaking stories that we ignored when we liked the prior President three years ago but in the interest of intellectual honesty, let’s admit things are better. Not worse. Better
2
@Run From Nothing - Facts are fungible, ask Trumps IRS auditors.
1
@John , John you don’t present any facts. In general we are indeed better off. That’s a fact.
1
@John , facts appear fungible to those who don’t understand statistics, economics or have the energy to do their own research on the the economy and the world
Look at the statistics.
Admit things are better, in general
1
On U.S. Bank, 100 million dollar CEOs regularly ignore employees at the bottom. Shining light here publicly is all they understand. People go to jail in the U.S. routinely for crimes they didn't commit or whose punishment is not jail time, because they can't or won't pay bail (why contribute to an unjust criminal justice system?). A few candidates are shining light here, but that's it, no public scrutiny on a day to day basis.
Mr. Kristof has advocated publishing gun deaths on a day to day basis, but that too has faded. Gun violence in the U.S. is a major public health problem.
Even more dramatic in day to day effect is climate change. Not just in the newsworthy floods, droughts, and fires (that are usually not connected in their reporting to climate change--a good part of this is that the sponsors are connected to the fossil fuel industry). This is happening every day and growing worse. CO2 levels are still going up; sea level is rising faster from more ice sheet melt; and air and water quality levels, especially in Asia, are still declining.
All three of these need to be charted every day: Gun violence, the injustice of the criminal justice system (which is deliberate tracking in racist States), and Climate Change. On the latter, there is new science every day explaining the perils, and recently (Oct 17, Nature), that ice sheet melt at 400ppm CO2 in the Pliocene was 23m (+-5). Two studies here, NZ and the Mediterranean, and we are now seeing rapid ice sheet melt.
2
As Mr Kristoff notes, the economy is bifurcated, with the side of the country in the have-not group that helped elect Trump remaining largely neglected. Yet, this group - which I expect numbers in the millions - seem to have retained their loyalty to the incumbent.
The Democrats need to figure out a way to reach this demographic and rectify this conundrum. Proposals for monolithic, system wide (read, bureaucratic and Washington based) solutions such as Universal Health care, do not resonate. A message has yet to be crafted which 1) acknowledges the chronic pain and, 2) generates confidence that the Democrats can provide a tangible path out.
3
@Plohni
At one point I would have agreed but I'm not so sure anymore. Hate and grievance and powerful tonics and maybe they don't want their own voices. It's easier to turn everything over to Trump and cheer from the sidelines.
America will never be Europe. The New World and foundations of its wealth were based on stealing land and people, a culture of exploitation 400 years deep. You can just smell that American DNA in people like McConnell and Sessions.
In a way, we’re only testing the boundaries of what it takes to be an equal society now. The minimum required economic solidarity and empowerment, on the liberal side the minimum cultural coherence (vs. freedom of expression).
From that bigger perspective, the temporary regression to Trump doesn’t seem out of place.
My hope rests on the growing, more community oriented people with immigration background, frankly. Save us from ourselves.
5
I remember a comment one reader made about the improved and improving economy. This person said "Yes, our family income has increased since I started working 3 jobs a week!" I also heard that working long hours and reduced time for family, recreation, and relaxation (including hobbies) is unhealthy. The routine can wear the body and mind down. Also if this work pattern persists it can interfere with sleep; short hours and shallow sleep. Our economy does not reflect the Preamble of our Constitution, "We the People". If it did, then Americans would have better healthcare and wealth inequality would not be so pronounced.
8
"Some 400,000 children have lost health insurance under Trump."
Explain to me how Trump can be considered a "pro-life" president by so many evangelicals and Catholics when he is the reason why all these children have lost health care coverage? If there is a right to life, why is health care that saves and protects life, not also a right?
8
Those in the stock market are doing well but most people aren't deriving their income from the market and their financial situation is precarious. Trump plays on the misunderstanding that the market is the economy. It isn't: market forecasts forward, largely on hope and the economy derives predictions from the past.
6
I think about the research that shows we are happiest living among those of similar economic means. TV and othe r media bring the rich and famous into our living rooms every day. And it brings in the homeless also.
I think about my grandma living in the Ozarks in 1910s. She would say, “We were poor but we didn’t know it. Everyone else wa too.” That was a different kind of poor.
7
Most of the 836 people in the rural/farming community I come from have seen NONE of the advertised benefits of the Trump economic miracle. None of the farmers have received a dime of the promised subsidies. Yet, there are still plenty of Trump-Pence signs in evidence. And, they’ll vote for him again! I do not understand...
9
Don't forget the $350 billion per year stimulus the GOP put in with tax cuts, and of course that stimulus is paid on the backs of future taxpayers as it is all in added debt. I can't help but think how much better that stimulus would have been had it been invested in US infrastructure, a true common good that improves global competitiveness.
We could try free trade instead. It really does work magic for both those who need low prices and those with stuff to sell.
We could try fair taxation under the novel notion of equal protection under the law that doesn't give some the ability to write off expense (corporate persons) while others don't (flesh person).
As for healthcare, if we could cap a lifetime to say $1 million, it might be doable. But the notion others would pay for all healthcare (which is not a finite resource, but one created daily with only sometimes real improvements) no matter how much would bankrupt taxpayers and increase the high priced drugs and services we have today. We need a fair market in healthcare to get prices down and have it focus on the services Americans actually need.
5
I was glad to see you mentioned pain as a prominent factor for many working class individuals in your editorial Mr. Kristoff, but somewhat dismayed when you brushed it off as as possible symptom of health care. Consequently, it is important to point out that for many people, pain is a result of an injury sustained at work, whether it be an acute injury from an accident or an injury that develops over time from the inherent physical nature of many jobs. Indeed, the sentinel study by Case and Deaton identified a higher level of pain in the demographic cohort whose life expectancy was found to decline over time. For many workers, an injury was (and still is) the gateway to drug dependency. Every day millions of workers are exposed to dangerous working conditions, and in many situations, it is a direct result of ignoring OSHA's existing health and safety standards. OSHA has inadequate resources to address this problem and as we might guess, also (currently) has a weak mandate to enforce these regulations. The decline of unions, who have over the course of history championed safer work conditions, has also contributed to this "pain epidemic". Part of the solution to the problems experienced by the working class lie in creating safer working conditions, a very relevant point that needs more attention!
12
Thank you for pointing out the two forms of depression that Mr Trump is catapulting into the foreground, as he boasts about the economy. The first is the economic one, for the many who do not share in that financial growth. The second is the emotional one, for the many who are all too likely to sink into despair and feel hopeless when they lack opportunity and hear about the glossy lives of others. We need what FDR brought - real opportunity and reasons for the revival of hope.
9
There is a song in "1776" called "Cool Considerate Men" which extols the virtues of the rich. Even though there are more poor people than rich people, they aspire to be rich, therefore they will follow these Conservatives. That's the thought process that inspires people to vote for Donald Trump, the hope of becoming wealthy rather than the reality of their lives.
I fear that I will be indigent by my seventies due to corporate cutbacks, reduced wages, taxes, medical costs, divorce, children, college for children, etc. I have a Master's Degree and have been working full-time since I graduated from college. Just living life FRUGALLY, has killed most of my savings. I live in a small house, do not buy jewelry or expensive things, drive my cars for at least 10 years.
Every time Trump and the Republican party open their mouths I become depressed and think it's hopeless. We need a leader who helps the middle class, not the rich.
12
I like the last sentence. But in order to make billions the current practice of capitalism requires that you damages physically and psychologically many. And that is not to say that ingenuity should not be rewarded.
3
The problem is that the have-nots do not vote. When the Democratic party had ward bosses and machines, the ward operatives assured that they did. It was a sort of enforced social conscious, but it did bring us the New Deal and probably (See Daley's machine in Chicago) the New Frontier. Something or someone (Bernie?) needs to motivate these people to go to the polls. Demonstrations don't elect politicians.
8
“indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices.”
It’s a good start! And how I am thankful for journalists like Nicholas Kristof-He even interacts with comments here- for shining light on social injustice issues, & speaking from the heart.
We need more of him! Today’s bombardment of the trumpian reality show in which many journalists are partaking in, is exhausting. More hope, less fear.
7
Why is it so difficult for Dems to get behind this message? This speaks to humankind's greatest fears - fear of not being able to take care of one's self. And we know that fear drives people to the polls (as does hope, but apparently there's little appetite for hope right now.)
Comparing the minimum wage of 30-40 years ago, to today, is data that can't be ignored and should be talked about constantly.
15
There is little doubt that Trump will continue to exacerbate the pain for working-class Americans. There is also little doubt that many of these poorly educated and low income Americans will choose to remain staunch supporters of President Trump. We must not overlook these are mutually exclusive points.
3
The economy definitely isn’t better for single older folks living on Social Security. I was a single parent who worked as a civil servant, so do not have a private sector retirement income. I never earned enough to do much saving while raising my family alone and my ex-spouse had his own financial problems. Meanwhile medical care and the price of food and housing keeps going up.....
14
Longevity rose during the Great Depression, but has fallen during MAGA. There's a campaign slogan there, somewhere.
14
Until we organize economic boycotts, strikes, and massive, peaceful, but disrupting 'business as usual' demonstations, the GOP and Trumpets will continue to lead the decline and the invitations to suffering, injustice, poverty and lack of morality and civil society, education quality and results, etc.
This is about power and the rich and their corporate media and the utterly corrupted, now three branches of government, dominated by utterly corrupt, careless, Profits before People and Planet GOP will bring further ruin.
Unless we stop them with the power-balancing tools mentioned in my first sentence.
Organize and Act and Vote and Resist.
4
According to the NY Times, "just 52 percent of households owned retirement accounts in 2016, according to Federal Reserve data. And at a time when fewer retirees can rely on traditional pensions, Social Security will be the only source of guaranteed lifetime income for most workers."
Only some Americans get to participate in this great economy, many more are left behind hoping to keep their head above water and not end up in a tent on the streets.
12
First, the first issue most Americans agree on is that corporations need to pay their fair share of taxes. The wealthy, who already pay the majority of taxes, should have fewer loopholes. But remember, which the pages don’t, that money is also fueling investment in our economy. Unfortunately, when Democrats enact their “taxes on the wealthy,” they aim too low and punish those who are most productive, and the idea of what average America s are working toward. When a starry-eyed progressive Millennial couple earning $200,000 is viewed as “wealthy””, wanting to buy a home and invest in their future, working and commuting and paying for daycare, see their paychecks take a hit because Jeff Bezos is too rich, you lose both the voter and the incentive. And, that’s exactly what John Kerry and Barak Obama stood for. Want to beat poverty? Build the economy. Address the changing economy through education and training (different than teacher contracts), have more fair trade agreements, and make it easier for small businesses to thrive. The government, today, is more of an obstruction than an enabler.
6
@Alberto Abrizzi What you don't understand is that many, many, hard-working American couples will never, ever, ever, earn anywhere near $200K a year. I don't disagree with you about them becoming collateral damage, but to the couple who work four or five jobs between them to make $60K (maybe less) the starry-eyed progressives might as well be Jeff Bezos.
BTW, when you're working that much, you can't go to night school.
7
“But Case says that even so, almost half of Americans aged 25 and over with only a high school diploma are no longer in the labor force.”
I wonder how much of this is due to the fact that daycare costs 10-20k per year per child. If the lower income parent doesn’t have a degree, it’s hard to justify working over taking care of the kid(s).
13
The problem is not all about health care. Creating a robust economy with real wages rising is a huge accomplishment for Trump. Please stop repeating that the economic expansion can be attributed to Obama. Obama oversaw the weakest recovery and economy once stable that grew at under 2%. Obama declared it the " New Normal". Trump's tax cuts and deregulation are directly responsible for the current expansion. When you say something else you are distorting the truth, something you often accuse Trump of. What we do need to help those with high school or less education are unskilled and semi-skilled jobs. Many of these jobs are taken by illegals in construction and manufactiong plants. That is not a xenophobic statement, it is one of fact. These unskilled jobs are entry level work that gets men in particular back in the workforce. Just providing health care is a band-aid. Dignity comes from having a job and a way to provide for a family.
1
And part of the problem, as stated, is the out-of-scale “salary” of CEO’s like Mr. Cecere of USBank. We closed our account and I hope many others did the same. It cost us an hour or two of logistical work but if enough accounts are closed maybe we can have an influence on those who are intentionally or unintentionally doing nothing to help the group cited in this week’s OpEd. Thank you, Mr. Kristoff.
4
If Hillary had been elected we would be in another recession right now. This roaring economy is due to Trump's leadership.
2
When Trump came into office there had been 76 consecutive months of job gains after a horrid recession. Obama’s economy continues, but now sabotaged by giant tax cuts for the well off, deficits, and inequality. Fire him!
17
The higher the climb, the greater the fall.
4
I agree with the article but toward the end dir,you site the following:;"half of working age people over 25 with just a high school diploma are out of the labor force"I know it's not good to not have any training or education at all after high school but half are not in the work force?
2
I have contempt for Trump voters as voters because they support a contemptuous man. They don’t get a pass simply because they’ve been neglected, though I don’t disagree that they have been. Having said that, I am not at all contemptuous of their personal lives or their struggles. What deeply troubles me is their unwavering loyalty to a selfish, lying, bombastic con man and his congressional cult. While there may be some truth to the claim that Democrats have too often neglected them, the Republicans who control the rural heartland have actually benefited from their despair and anger. It’s the bedrock of Trump’s support and he and his minions have not good reason to address it. Anger is their ticket at the polls.
When I read Trump supporters’ glowing claims that he has or is accomplishing all that he promised, I wonder where they see those astounding changes in their own lives and communities? I don’t believe they do, and Mr Kristol’s detailed column correctly challenges the view that Trump is their champion. Still, Trump’s approval numbers hold and even spike as a spotlight reveals the corruption and rot at the heart of our government. If that isn’t worthy of contempt, what is?
7
Where in the world today is there a country whose economic system has eliminated inequality ? Not any Capitalistic society .
Not any Totalitarian state e.g. Russia , China. However , if you do truly want to live in a country with no income inequality you could move to Cuba . Everyone is poor.
3
@PFS Jr. Of course we'll never eliminate all economic inequality. The question is whether the current (rising) level of inequality is sustainable.
6
Gee. I must not have gotten my $800,000 check from Trump yet. Maybe it'll come next week. Meanwhile, I'm just a 67 year old lady managing to scrape by on social security and a part time job. I lost my full time job in 2015 and couldn't find another. No one wants to hire an old lady, apparently. I took early social security when my savings ran out (thank God we still have social security, though I read that Trump has some plans for that). Every time I read a comment praising Trump's great economy I shake my head. Those comments come from rich people, with portfolios and 401Ks. But, if you don't have stocks and mutual funds, Trump's economy does nothing for you. He doesn't care, of course. Most poor people will go right ahead and vote for him again.
29
"This all sounds promising, but indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices." -----
One can only wonder if they are genuinely sorry for their actions or it's just a public relations stunt.
3
The only reason Trump's economy is "BOOMING" is that the disease of telling lies has rampantly spread through the media: The Times, WAPO, Boston Globe and every cable news bureau and national TV station is confirming the lie on a daily basis. It is incredible to realize that a meteor named climate change is headed for this planet and billions may die and yet Trump is rolling back what few safety regulations are left after he went ballistic on every Obama effort to show the world how to react to the coming disaster. And if Trump's supporters don't care about the water and air on this planet that doesn't mean the economy is booming; it means the cost is rising astronomically every day to stop this disaster. And with the country already trillions in debt funding the necessary changes will be hard on everyone. So first the media has to reign in their lies, because FOX and Trump will keep blasting them out. Then the media is obligated to give people the facts: the world cannot sustain Trump or his GOP cult or his ilk around the globe without the price being the possible end of civilization as we know it. As for the millions of jobs Trump is claiming his economic policies are creating, I suspect those will mainly be digging graves and cremating the dead if he has another four years of help from the media in telling lies.
12
Guess who will pay the price when the administration shops around for somebody to make up for the Space Force, the Wall and the huge deficit increase created by tax cuts for corporations and high earners. Of course it will be those on food stamps, disabled people, those on SS, Medicare or Medicaid, or those deemed "unemployable". Some oft he same people who lost jobs, life savings and homes ten years ago are now aged/disabled out of the work force, or have given up on an economy that has eliminated not just their careers but their job fields, with no way to get back to work--unless they can stand on cement floors all day or cobble together the cash for a cheap van to deliver for Amazon. Blame and shame the same people over and over, winner take all and if you are unlucky, you are fired. "Survivor" is not a game in America it is the deadly truth.
9
Unfortunately, for some, the word “inequality” triggers disgust for “freeloaders” and “socialists.” It doesn’t matter to them that Trump’s policies are probably working against them, too. “If I’m miserable then I want to make you miserable, too.” Voting for Trump is a way of getting back at “liberals” in spite.
Those of us who are working for a fair, just and equitable society have not yet found a way to counter these confrontational politics.
6
In a wealthy and technologically advanced country like the U.S., it's a sad irony that a chunk of our health care has to come from volunteers. I'm thinking in particular of Remote Area Medical-- https://www.ramusa.org --which has upcoming visits scheduled in Tenn. and Ala., some of the states ranking at the low end of health care. And they are mostly, if not all, RED states. So much for caring for Trump's base.
9
must of the statistic on upper levels of wealth and income are vastly skewed by the top 0.0001%. These outliers skew the statistics, greatly.
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Clinton and the like are included in the "1%" but impact the mean disproportionately.
Meanwhile the folks in the upper 1% of income in any given year, ebb and flow, and change often. Real estate brokers, investors, folks receiving inheritance from hard working parents, all create a dynamic list of 1%income according to analysis of IRS data.
Some people are suffering, indeed. Capitalism isn't perfect, but hey, the great Socialist experiments by Mao, Stalin and Chavez ended very badly.
4
Wait until despair turns to anger ,then rage.
6
In an act of sheer vengeance, trump terminated access to healthcare for his nephew’s sick baby. So are we surprised that 400,000 children have lost health insurance under this vile man?
I don’t understand why the Democratic candidates don’t tell this revealing story every time they take the stage.
7
Mr. Kristof it's far easier to be simply entertained by a con man rather than trying to critically examine the claims of a entertainer like Trump. Trump Nation is a America that values the entertainment factor of fraud and lies from Trump rather than rational thought and they're proud of it. Witness his vindictive and showy State of the Union Speech and the crowd screamed "four more years". As a 74 year old retired white guy, I truly sometimes think that America has a death wish for our democracy.
10
With respect to the Bank of America fiasco, hiring back the two fired employees was only half the solution. The other half was for the Board to fire the CEO because he obviously has no idea how to run a company.
4
"It is these working-class Americans, white and black alike, who have seen earnings collapse, family structure disintegrate and mortality climb. "
It's only going to get worse as tech and robots take over the jobs regular people, not math wizards, can do. It's all going away.
So the Democrats can talk all they want about helping black and brown people and even white blue collar people, but unless they can do math, they will have no earning potential. The Republicans can blab about creating jobs, but those jobs will pay minimum wage and be gone soon enough. This is a huge disaster for millions of people (with no way out of it). They will become non people like half the population of India.
Trump lies and the Democrats all lie, except for Buttigig and Andrew Yang. It is a human disaster.
4
Warning: By repeating some kind of voodoo that a good economy will assure a reelection or even that a good economy has much at all to do with the President himself just is irresponsible for the media. Repeat it and it becomes true. But the truth is that wages are stagnant for too many citizens, and the inequality is demoralizing and woefully unjust. The wealth of our nation, produced by our nation, is hoarded by a small number of greedy oligarchs. We are all cowards: a general strike would be justified, but Truth Force is only a distant twinkle in our dark economy.
6
When you say we have a strong economy, which group are you talking about? Certainly not the majority, where the pitiful rise in wages cannot kkep up with the increased cost of living. And it;s not only in education and health care, but in jobs and housing. And we haven't even mentioned the farming industry, requiring support with our taxes. Trump's ongoing lie about the big strength of the economy is just a mirage. That unemployment is low? How about the need to work in two or more jobs to make ends meet? Of course, self-involved Trump has decided, by choice, to not-know the suffering of too many. Hypocrisy? You bet.
7
Republicans, conservatives, and Wallstreet killed the workers unions, and shipped good paying manufacturing jobs overseas over the last 30 years. That's why we live in bifurcated economy now.
7
Please tell me where to find the $800,000 that my household has gained since 2000.
6
Those who bray “socialism” when they ponder government assistance seem not to be those who benefit directly from it. Those who bray “socialism” falsely are the selfish in a rich nation. The selfish turn blind eyes—is it a vision defect or a mental defect?-- to the economic benefit of government assistance to receivers and to the giving economy. Economists have shown over many decades that rising economics helps all. It is actual history, not a mere theory. The blindness is criminal.
5
Mr. Kristof
Most americans are not educated enough to do anything about their economic conditions.
The don't even know when they are being robbed.
8
The economy isn't surging, at least, not with sustainability. It's all about low interest rates and how those rates affect home prices, stock prices and refinancing. Nothing has changed since 2005.
5
We should mention declining job security as well. Even if wages hadn't collapsed, the ability of a working class adult to retain a job has diminished. Most employment is "at-will" these days. Even if you find a decent job, the employer can let you go at anytime for no reason at all. Workers end up stringing together an endless series of quasi-permanent gigs. One day, there is no next gig. You're permanently unemployed or under employed. Facing that reality is extremely depressing.
13
Where is it written that the main job of the president is to deliver a strong economy? Is this what our founders had in mind? This is a misguided trope about the purpose of government — created by Chicago School right wingers and perpetuated as if it were fact by our media, including this paper.
Mr. Kristof makes a good point that our economy may not be serving all of our citizens. But we should also be asking ourselves if we are happy, healthy, peaceful and just. “Make more money” is a pretty narrow goal for a nation, much less the individual human beings who inhabit it.
8
Actually this is a very scary economy. Yes, the gulf between rich and poor is widening rapidly, but there is Sword of Damocles hanging by the thinnest of hairs over our economy and it is only a matter of when, not if, the hair will break and plunge the sword into our hearts.
In his State of the Union Address, Trump had the chutzpah to tout the rise in incomes of the lowest paid workers, failing to mention that this was because so many states were passing laws raising the minimum wage, laws that Trump and nearly all Republicans fought against. But even those increases, like Social Security and most other COLAs, are being absorbed, and then some, by increases in the out-of-pocket costs of medical care.
But that is not the hair on which the sword is suspended. That hair consists of debt, both from Trump's trillion-dollar-and-growing Federal deficit but also from ballooning personal debt, largely on credit cards. This is a house of cards that cannot stand for long.
Anyone could arrange for low unemployment if they shovel a trillion dollars a year out of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing into the commercial economy, but the day of reckoning will come. But putting most of that money into the hands of the wealthiest among us going to make whatever disastrous crash that runs over us that much worse.
The bill will come due. It is inevitable.
14
Speaking of Trump's deficiencies.
Perhaps really most worrisome was the extremely low turnout for the Democratic caucuses
in Iowa last week, although perhaps we should not be surprised at the low turnout. Bernie and Pete, for example, are certainly not the type of candidates that have ever won widespread support to be elected president in the past. Bernie says he is an admirer of the historic socialist Eugene Debbs, who never came even close to winning a presidential election. Pete seems to most of us to be terribly young and inexperienced to be elected president of the United States of America, and to serve effectively as president.
2
@David They couldn't count the votes they had; I shudder to think what would have happened with a big turnout.
1
I appreciate this quote,“The crisis is almost invisible for those with a college degree,” and I feel the invisibility when I read your colleagues on social media, speak of my "privilege". To physically labor outside at an old age is ok, the cynicism by many to our plight, calling us racist or worse for voting out self interest, not so much.
5
I gave myself a raise the other day, put it on my Visa card. I'm sure this is a good economic strategy.
And now, I'm going shopping for new shoes with my raise
[whistling]
3
Love your work Nick but your last line says everything: "This all sounds promising, but indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices."
3
"but indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices."
Surprisingly, at least to me, the scalability of at least certain op-ed columns does provide solutions. The proof is in this column re last week and the bank.
3
Interesting article but I got one better. I have transversed this country by car 10 Times in twenty years. The media needs to do a much better job showing the poverty and squalor Americans are living in. Places like Kentucky, Mississippi and even major cities like LA and NY have minority’s living in houses and apartments that are disgraceful, unhealthy and uninhabitable humans. We are not talking about a few but tens of thousands of people living in filthy unsanitary conditions. When was the last time you saw a video of that on TV? Then the media show show how tons of Americans have little to no health care, dental care and eye care. I spoke with countless individuals with such bad medical conditions and no money or care available to them. Yes, the economy is booming. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting little to nothing. Next, the media should go into some of the public schools in those areas referenced above and show Americans what there children see everyday or more importantly, what they won’t see. Old text books, no libraries, no air conditioning and no internet. I could go on and on. Since most amazing don’t read a newspaper or watch the news, show them videos and pictures of the squalor around us. It truly is an embarrassment to be an American claiming we are the greatest blah blah blah.
15
Mr. Kristof did not include numbers. The raw numbers themselves are staggering. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but the following are roughly correct. Every year about 16,000 Americans commit suicide with a gun. The vast majority are men. Gun suicides are roughly half of all annual gun fatalities. Official records indicate that another 30,000 Americans commit suicide in some other way. Who knows how many other Americans kill themselves slowly with alcohol or drugs? Every year about 65,000 Americans die due to an opiate overdose. These staggering numbers will only get worse the longer this administration remains in the White House. Trump and his frightened Congressional Republicans are going after health care and a score of vital working class government programs. Both Trump and McConnell have said publicly that they are planning to attack Social Security and Medicare in his second term.
7
It’s all the fault of Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama. Nothing changed after the 2008 meltdown. Also Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan.
1
This piece is a fine collection of fallacies.
Working class people sometimes make a lot of money. Does the author think otherwise?
People can and mostly likely frequently do answer surveys stratecially (e. g. by exaggerating or lying). 30 out of 30 bad days seems like it should be fairly uncommon no matter what. The other question referenced seemed so vague as to be useless. Ask oneself what are the incentives at play in answering these questions?
Trump causes people to be agitated by his corruption and incompetence, but this does not mean he created the declining relative wealth of the average working class white male. Reduced levels of discrimination and international competition did that, paired with advances in logistics and a disparity of environmental and safety enforcement around the world. Whether this decreased their absolute wealth is a more difficult and more important question to answer.
Working class people have always known some people are vastly wealthier than they are. Going to work in a factory reminds someone every day that there is a factory owner and a plant manager. Inequality is nothing new.
This piece has the kind of distortion that helps Trump and his ilk get away with many of their lies.
@Alan Of course working class people have always know there were people who had/made more money than they did.
In the old social contract, if they showed up to work in that factory, put in an honest day's work, they'd get an honest day's pay and be able to afford a working class person's life. This no longer exists for many working class people (I am one of the, although not white and not male). And telling us to be come a coder or a nurse or a plumber isn't going to solve the problem.
5
Bill Gates walked into the room I was in and I finally had the average net worth to get a loan and buy a home. Yea!
Then he left the room and I had trouble putting together bus fare to get to my job.
10
Good column, and really not much to say about the immoral and dreadful inequalities in the economy. Personally, I'd raise the minimum wage to $20/hour for employees at companies with 50 or more employees; $15/hour for others. On the U.S. Bank thing - I think Kristof dealt with it reasonably well, but personally I wouldn't have given the CEO this platform to report that he's finally seen the light. Not only is this not "scalable" - it is, in effect, a lie. The fact is that the bank did nothing when it should have; acting after you've been called out in a NY Times column is completely meaningless. I've cancelled by U.S. Bank credit card in protest.
8
Maybe not everyone has benefited but the guy deserves credit for putting a spotlight on the failures of DC and the media for ignoring it for so long.
2
No society is classless. The greatness of this nation is that our society is not rigidly stratified. One generation may propel the next to higher levels of education and economic success. The lower the level at which one begins, the more arduous one’s initial work may be. It builds character, and those who grow up affluent and take everything for granted often fail to achieve anything. Others who are born to educated parents and grow up comfortably become slobbering advocates for the underclass.
The fact of the matter is that we shouldn't have individual billionaires in 2020. That is more money than any single person needs in a lifetime. It's obscene. I don't fault rich people for playing the game and winning it, but the fact they can do so at this level is beyond obscene and a sign of how sick our society and shared humanity is.
8
Great stuff Nick. Keep it coming. And Bernie or Elizabeth would not be a disaster. Keep it coming.
4
Unlike the theme song from M*A*S*H, suicide isn't painless, isn't sudden and destroys countries as well as their citizens. The American myth of success may have been disingenuously crafted to deceive while the American myth of failure has become more and more of a reality. Its causes are many and complex, ditto for its solutions. This too shall pass, yet not before we no longer remember who we were and who we hopefully still can be.
As always, Mr. Kristof, thanks for telling it like it is.
4
Despite the fact that "indignant columns" should not be needed for capitalists to do the right thing, congratulations Mr. Kristof for bringing the story of U.S. Bank's abuse to our attention, leading to a just outcome for two abused employees.
The story of U.S. Bank's abuse of two employees who did the right thing - helping a person in distress - fits right in with what has been happening in America for too many decades, but has crested in this era of Trump. The needy narcissism of Trump mirrors the "I've-got-mine" few and their neglect of the suffering of the many.
"Conservatives" hate handouts to alleviate the pain and suffering of being poor. But until being poor can be remedied (education, a living wage, an economy that values workers, help when adversity strikes), the poor should be viewed not as a burden but as our brothers in need.
To those who want to claim America is a Christian country, I ask, "What [per]version of Christianity do you profess?"
5
Trump lies as he breathes, about the economy and everything else. The reason our trade deficit has gone down is that trade itself has gone down; imports and exports have both shrunk and 12,000 jobs were lost in the manufacturing sector last month, mostly in the Midwest. The economy may be great for those with a stock portfolio but it ain't so great for those working three jobs just to eat and pay the rent.
2
Let's start with I didn't vote for Trump & I'm not going to vote for Trump. And I'll agree that he isn't interested in doing anything for the losers of the "Global Economy".
But (And ITS A BIG BUT) what exactly have the Democrats did or are doing for the same people?
Obama Care ? Hardly my offer was $650 a month and a $7500 deductible on munificent 30K a year. A deal for the insurance company sure. For me? Not so much. Not to mention the Obama administration attitude Wallstreet's in trouble? Give them all money they want even other countries banks. But on the other hand! Mainstreet's underwater and sinking fast. Let'em drown the banks are much more important they pay for our election & give us lobbyist jobs. So can we skip the whole previous administrations did anymore for the losers of globalization then the current administration? It's pure fantasy.
The current candidates? For the most part they're all pushing snake oil. These wonderful programs can't through the house, much less the Senate. They don't have enough support in their own party push them through much less make them law.
So maybe we should skip the fantasy that either party cares or intends to do anything for the loser's of "Globalization." For BOTH parties track record since Carter left office is that for a whole lot of talk NOTHING will be done to benefit the losers only the big donors. To pretend otherwise is a bigger fantasy then Game of Thrones!
3
Our biggest issue in this country is our health. Or rather the lack of it. While Spain is the healthiest country in the world we rank a miserable 35. We have destroyed our food supply by poisoning wheat, dumping HFCS into many of our foods regardless of its effects on obesity, killing people with aspartame and turning people against fat as a bad food. This is totally untrue and unhealthy. We also have ignored whole grains. The list goes on and on.
In short the government is poisoning us by sourcing cheap worthless foods on us and lying to us about what is healthy.
It sort of reminds me of the decades that the government covered up the harm caused by cigarettes that caused countless deaths.
3
Mr. Kristof,
Thank you for telling the other side of the greatest economy.
Thank you also for helping Ms. Gilbert and Ms. James.
4
Upscale Democrats have abandoned the working class, and Mr. Kristof clearly doesn't know:
1. Obamacare openly and notoriously include a coverage gap -- 27 million working class Americans who are uninsured.
2. Under Obama, Part D of Medicare included a doughnut hole which costs the working class as much as $5,000 per person in uncovered drug costs.
3. The tax brackets under Obama provided for a 24% marginal rate for the upscale and a 22% marginal rate for a good portion of the working class, so at the margin, blue collar Americans an upscale Democrats are taxed at about the same rate which contribute substantially to income inequality.
4. Democrats created the home mortgage deduction which generously subsidizes upscale Democrats and gives little benefit to the working class. Th e same for 401()k)'s. The same for 520 educational accounts.
5. Working class school districts are far inferior to those where upscale Democrats send their kids.
6. Working class neighborhoods are far inferior in every way from property value to crime to public services when compared to those that serve upscale Democrats.
Democrats are fond of saying the the working class vote against their interests. But it's clear as day--upscale Democrats cause them all kinds of harm, which is why they don't vote for them.
5
Talk about it if you want but these people have a kind of mass Stockholm syndrome. They cannot be reached and will only hate you more for trying. If you help them they will credit Trump. That's what cults do.
The general populace was bred and educated to be factory workers or other low end job. Their purpose is to be the workers and the consumers and nothing else. And if you can get them to die at 65 that is the perfect life of a serf. Work, consume, die. Everything else is some kind of socialist plot to destroy the country.
5
Who will work in all the factories moving to the U.S.A. from China?
The question never asked of the White House. The question never asked by the press.
1
First, well done Nick. You are now a member of the starfish club with you effort on U.S. Bank. Like the boy who walked long the beach of thousands of stranded starfish. When asked by a bystander why he was taking the time to throw a few back to the water against overwhelming odds,.... reminded that he could not save them all,....the boy picked up one and made a great toss. Said the boy: "I saved that one, didn't I."
1
where does the $800,000 wealth increase per household figure come from?
2
Going back to the last 19th century, progressives were making the same arguments and seeking to bring disadvantaged whites and blacks together. Of course, the wealthy managed to divide them by telling those whites they were better than blacks so shouldn't ally with them.
We still have this today. Poor whites would rather vote against their own self-interests than vote for something that would help them and blacks and Latinos because they believe the latter two groups are getting more from government programs than they do.
4
And yet these same people don’t care to do anything politically to improve their lot in life. Why? Because they are more interested in sticking it to libs and the “elite”. I don’t know who they are referring to about the elite anymore. It certainly doesn’t refer to the wealthy and powerful conservatives. I guess “elite” is code word for educated. God forbid we should use critical thought to solve our problems.
3
Pity that most Americans don't understand that Trump does not control the economy.
There is no knob he, nor any president, can turn to make the economy better.
The economy is produced by you, me and every one else thanks to our buying and selling decisions every second of every day.
Trump can. however, harm the economy. He can do this by exacerbating the deficit; that is, by spending more than the revenue it receives
Previously, the gap between spending and revenue was bridged by debt; that is, by borrowing from foreigners.
Since Trump became president, he has enlarged the deficit by more than any previous president.
Foreigners no longer lend money to the US. They are not sure if they will get their money back or, if what they get back, has any purchasing power.
Consequently, the money-in; money out gap is bridged by the Federal Reserve. It prints whatever money is required to redress the short-term deficit but which merely adds to the long-term debt
Printing money at will destroys the purchasing power of the dollar. It puts us in the same league as Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Argentina. Troubled times a-coming
3
Remember this and use it in this year's campaign. The facts behind this statistical prosperity are sobering - suicides, homelessness, unaffordable or unavailable medical care, young people feeling they are underemployed and overly indebted compared to their parents at their age. Here in Michigan there are thousands of people who lost their jobs in 2008 and are still scrambling, un- our under employed and uninsured. And for those who are employed and insured, there is no security nor safety net. I keep hearing the factoid about the number of families who cannot cover an unexpected $400 expense, or for whom two missed paychecks mean economic devastation. Keep rubbing Trump's nose in reality - and his responsibility. Your are our President, Mr. President. You bought it, you own it.
4
Mr. Kristof your opinion brought to mind the struggles of the Joad family in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath." A story of the hardships and indignities faced by poor midwestern families overwhelmed by the ravages of nature, the destructive, indifferent forces of unregulated capitalism, and meanness doled out by people who profess to live by Christian values. That was America in the 1930's and by many measures that is America today.
I will close with a timeless truth spoken by Ma Joad as her family and other families endured injustices and suffering in a land of wealth and plenty "If you are in trouble, need help, go to poor people, they are the only ones who will help."
11
You are right, but in a nation of 340 million, millions and even tens of millions will inevitably have some downturns even when most are rising. That is me, but I still recognize the truth that most are rising. I am glad for that even as I work to improve my lot.
1
Mr. Kristof, an economy that is built on a house of cards,i.e., a mountain of debt, can not in any way be considered strong.
6
When someone says that their 401K is doing well so they are going to vote for Trump, I think of the family that I live near. The father runs a debris/dumping business, and he has toxic demolition materials carted from building sites deposited on his property, poisoning the land and ground water of his property and other properties he owns. Sometimes a dozen or more tractor trailer fulls each day arrived until the town government was able to stop him. He made plenty of money, too.
6
The economic numbers may look good, but they are thin. The stock market is doing well, but the main street market, not so much. While new jobs are being created, their quality and wages are low.
Prices for everyday goods are up, partly due to unnecessary tariffs that bought America little in the way of better trade agreements. People with lower education still scramble for jobs and often need two or more to make ends meet. Hundreds of thousands of children no longer have healthcare.
Seniors who have savings are doing okay due to stock market growth, but those who depend on interest income are hurting.
These factors point not to a great economy, but to one that is limping along, with overall growth far lower than the Trump administration promised. Trump may convince some people that they have more, but I won't be one of them.
419
@Barbara
"...jobs are being created but their quality and wages are low..."
Nope.
In three years, Trump has created 7.4 million full-time jobs, more than 100% of the new jobs being created.
Median personal income has increased $1,500 to an all-time record $32,800. By comparison, your beloved high tax EU is less than $20,000 per year.
3
@John Huppenthal And the Brits' taxes pay for a very good healthcare system. They may earn $20,000 to our $32,800 but they won't go bankrupt due to insurance premiums, illness or injury.
77
@John Huppenthal
Is that $32,800 pre-tax? I don't think so. After tax income will be a bit less. Given the cost of housing, food and transportation, $32,800 is not a lot of money, unless you live in a poor rural area, or Appalachia. The EU provides health care, and affordable transportation. Germany provides housing support, college support, and health care. England, Belgium, Italy, and Spain have health care for all. No doubt there are pockets of poverty in the EU; we have entrenched poverty in some regions. We don't have a universal transportation system. Gas is expensive in Europe; not everyone has a car; however there is usually a train or bus system available. It is hard to say how the arrival of thousands of migrants fleeing wars, droughts and poverty will impact the developed European countries. Italy has now stopped accepting all; Norway, Denmark and Sweden are not open door countries. Cultural differences will have an impact; we are more used to diversity because we are a whole continent. Small countries in Europe will have more difficulty with that. Population movements are going to cause some problems.
41
Mr. Kristof your opinion brought to mind the struggles of the Joad family in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath." A story of the hardships and indignities faced by poor, Midwestern families, overwhelmed by the ravages of nature, the destructive, indifferent forces of unregulated capitalism, and meanness doled out by people who profess to live by religious values. That was America in the 1930's, and by many measures, that is America today.
I will close with a timeless truth spoken by Ma Joad as her family and other families endured great suffering in a land of wealth and plenty "If you are in trouble, need help, go to poor people, they are the only ones who will help."
221
It's no longer meaningful to speak of the United States economy as a whole entity when average household income is 50% more than the median household income of $60,030, and average household wealth is 7 times the median household wealth of $97,300.
The richest 1% are a breed apart and should be sliced off of any evaluation of how the US economy is serving 99% of its members. Even then the top 5% or 10% have vastly different lives than the 90%, generally serving and servicing the 1%.
A more indicative state of the economy is to describe how the 90% lives, and to compare that to other rich countries.
291
TBH, as a Yang supporter I find this column so frustrating. He has been hammering away at this on the trail, pointing out the harm caused to people when we calculate the health of our economy by looking at GDP instead of a human-centered capitalism that takes the health and welfare of our people into account - because economic value is not equivalent to human value. This is what that “humanity first” message is all about - and why I support him.
So here we have a guy who has been offering a centrist path forward, pulling in despairing working class voters from across the spectrum, offering ideas to help the very population that elected Trump and who has had their needs neglected since, and the party is either ignoring them, or prescribing solutions because we assume we know better. And he is polling so low he is probably dropping out soon. Which is a shame because people are hurting out there and as Americans they deserve more. And he is right to point out that it will get worse as jobs get automated. Sure, new jobs will come, eventually. But they will be located in cities and not in the areas where they were lost.
And in the meantime, one more more climate denying Trump term is disastrous - and will just make the lives of the people described in this article worse off. It’s heartbreaking.
(Ps - Trump did finally tweet about Yang - just to point out that the Dems don’t care about the needs of the people because if they did they would be listening to Andrew.)
8
Try being over 50 and looking for a job. Even if you are college educated, finding another job comparable to the one you were fired from because of your age or whatever, is quite difficult no matter what your field is. I know. I'm college educated, switched fields a little over 20 years ago, and was downsized from a job 3 months shy of my 55th birthday. This was nearly six years ago.
All that lovely advice people give is useless. We live in a country that is run by corporations that discriminate against anyone with years of experience. We live in a country where requiring medical care can be the first step towards losing everything. We live in a country where decent affordable housing is becoming very hard to find unless one is extremely rich or lucky or both. But Congress goes on merrily ignoring the problems of the 99%. In other words, for all the rights we have and whatever protesting we do, in the end the winner is deep pockets.
Trump and the rest of our elected officials ignore the working class and by that I mean any American who depends upon a paycheck to make ends meet. We're not asking for Cadillacs here. We want Corollas, things we can depend upon, things that will help us have decent lives and help our children have decent lives. Is that too much to expect for our taxes?
2/8/2020 8:52pm first submit
610
@hen3ry
When my over-50 brother-in-law was laid off some years ago, the company gave him a meeting with a job counselor.
Her advice? That he should color his hair, so that he looked younger.
54
Very true - yet there are G.O.P. efforts afoot to increase the mandatory retirement age to 70. Anyone over 45 (OK, perhaps over 50) who's had to hit the job market can attest to the difficulty in securing employment in most fields - due to age factors. Unless one is already entrenched in an employment situation from which they cannot be involuntarily removed, finding employment at that age is a longshot at best. And the employment that is available is typically not compensated even close to a living wage. How are people realistically expected to remain in the labor force even longer?
68
And yet the Democrats continue their push for everyone to go to college. Your story is fairly typical about being unemployable long before retirement age. Had you been in the blue collar trades you would likely still have job opportunities for as long as you wished to work.
6
I thought the idea of judging a society by how they treat the most vulnerable is central to most popular religions. I’m not particularly religious but I am constantly getting stuck in the Sunday traffic jams and I wonder what all those people do in those beautiful buildings dressed to the nines climbing into their luxury SUVs and sedans with their Trump bumper stickers.
If the National prayer breakfast was any indication of what goes on, they must be preaching revenge and kicking those among us who are on their financial knees.
211
@Allen J. -- The National Prayer breakfast was a disgrace. Trump has done more to dirty the reputation of Christians than all the sex scandals of the tele-evangelists combined. He has brought into the open the crassness and hypocrisy of national religious leaders and their followers. No wonder a majority of Americans don't attend church, or even believe in God. Trump has helped push those numbers even higher. To see him pander to Christians is sickening.
34
@Allen J.
Of course they are. The self-righteousness of perceived economic superiority is something Jesus always advocated. In those money changing temples anyway.
18
Thanks for your editorial. I was wondering why I felt all alone. We live in a wealthy suburb. Two of my four adult-children, all college-educated and gifted mathematicians, have been out of work for months or years. Our thirty-five year old still lives at home. I'm happy the economy is doing well, but in this household, it sure doesn't feel it. It's not the money my kids need; it's the job and opportunity.
302
Where are the in-depth news reports that reveal the economic depression that so many Americans are struggling with. I listen to National Public Radio every day. Yet even their financial reporting is focused on how great the economy is...for the already rich. Only occasionally does some one mention that the parameters that are widely used to measure the economy might not reflect reality for a large segment of the American people.
You say, half of Americans over 25 with only high school degree are no longer in the labor force! I suspect many have given up on job hunting and are not counted as "looking for work" so they don't get counted as "unemployed." I want to know what's really going on out there in every day America. I want financial reports on the news to report on measurements that have meaning to working class Americans. Dump the stock values. Instead, report on how many jobs working Americans need to hold down to pay their bills. What percentage of their income is going to housing, food, and ....childcare! How many hours do workers spend commuting? How many hours of free time do they have per week. How big is the difference between what workers actually earn and what they feel they need to earn to make a decent living? etc. etc. We need to define a whole new set of parameters to measure if we really want to know what the economy is doing...for every day Americans.
205
Agree. You’re spot on!
19
@kathleen
"Where are the in-depth news reports that reveal the economic depression that so many Americans are struggling with."
Sadly the stories are in the comment sections, sometimes The Guardian, Reddit, Al-Jazeera... We can see whats going on around us, but the denial by those who are still doing okay, the media, The President, DOJ, Congress, Business...
Things are precariously bad enough that a lot of people cannot afford the internet or housing. That means that their voices are not being heard. Without an address, you cannot vote in Washington State.
Think about that.
So living in a tent in the forest, trying to look clean for work. Staying sane without enough sleep. No healthcare. Few options, if any, for economic stability. And people do expect those of us made invisible by society to; Donate our organs. Donate our children. Stand up for some flag.
I think not.
I will not participate in this atmosphere of throwing people away.
21
“The crisis is almost invisible for those with a college degree,” my brother is a PhD economist. Twenty years ago he started saying "If you don't have a college degree, your wages are being set in Mumbai." I've found that to be true, but increasingly true for those with college degrees as well.
392
@Phil
"...wages set in Mumbai..."
No longer.
The wage increases for the bottom quintile were the highest of any quintile in 2018.
1
@Phil There are vast numbers of young and near young college graduates who have good, rewarding jobs and comfortable incomes and who are leading happy, productive lives. In my children and their friends and now beginning in my grandchildren, I see talented, hard working people who have good incomes and good prospects. Maybe not a representative sample, but there's an awful lot of them. While it may not work for everyone, it is not doom and gloom for most.
Problems can strike without warning. We should have universal health care and better safety nets. But let's recognize that there's a lot of things going very well right now in our country.
1
@Phil
Funny, I went to college. Two days ago I had to spread my unexpected $900 car repair over 3 credit cards to cover it. Now I'm maxed out again and dinged my credit score, another manipulative tool of my overlords.
25
Sometimes, it is easy to look at the struggling from a safe remove and think that we can protect ourselves from their lot in life. I am learning the hard way how precarious it all is.
I have a degree and spent years at a steady job with good benefits. Just before Thanksgiving, I started having odd neurological symptoms and went to specialist after specialist, taking one diagnostic after another. I have not been able to work in weeks. Last week, I learned that an autoimmune disease is wreaking havoc on my entire body. The doctor cautioned me that I am facing long, not short, term disability. My prospects for future health are uncertain and the road ahead is long. I will soon have to part with my employer and lose my income, insurance, pension, coworkers and the meaning I took from work. And I’m 41.
My heart goes out to all who are in difficult situations, no matter where they are and for whom they have voted. We are all vulnerable, whether or not we know it.
1696
@NM All over the world, there is a risk of being struck by a devastating disease or injury. But only in America do we accept that this will also bankrupt us and destroy our lives. And the figure I cite in my column about one-third of Americans reporting that they "often" or "very often" were in pain in the last month -- that's from a new wave of research showing that huge numbers of Americans report striking levels of chronic pain. We are still trying to understand what that means and why it's so much higher than in other countries. But it seems to be related in part to the lack of universal health care -- a problem that Trump is exacerbating with his assaults on health coverage.
1065
@NM Thank you for your comment which illustrates what can happen to anyone, and a huge health challenge doesn’t have any politics. I think your message, broadcast as far and as wide as you can send it, may encourage us to consider what is possible for any of us who have not sufficiently considered how “life happens” and that at any time all the protections we can establish for our neighbors may be needed by any of us. I will be thinking of your message as I consider the ideas I hear from candidates between now and November and watch carefully what the present administration puts in place to support your needs.
271
@Karen Genest
Thank you so much for your kind words and determination to look out for those in need. Your support and consideration are more helpful than anything.
I really appreciate your encouraging comment. Take care.
187
I have a college degree (from a first tier liberal arts college), and the crisis is not invisible to me. Frankly, I don't know why it would be invisible to everybody else.
I'm 40, working for $10.50 an hour at the front desk of a downtown hotel. When I relocated back to my hometown two years ago, I was turned down by temp agencies for the same admin jobs I used to do for $15 an hour 20 years ago, as a college student. I was told I'm no longer considered qualified. One temp agency did accept me but found me zero placements in three months. The only alternatives seem to be call center work or fast food/retail. My sister works at Walgreens and suggested I look into becoming a pharmacy tech, but same deal - many complained that they invested time and money in certifications only to find no job offers, and those with seniority report that they used to earn $20 an hour but are now getting offers of $10 an hour from big chains - which, as one woman put it, "is what I earned in 1998 as a trainee." Everyplace is understaffed and everyone is underpaid because companies have decided that merely turning a profit won't do - no, only obscene profits will suffice. Gotta cut to the bone in order to boost the share value a few cents.
My question is, how is anybody NOT aware of this? Where are your comfy bubbles, and how on earth did you get into them? I don't see any way out or any hope of better prospects.
41
I keep asking myself, again and again, why many of these same people who are struggling continue to vote against their own best interests, and I think I have an answer, finally. Nothing instills fear more than feeling vulnerable, left out, left behind, without opportunities—hopeless. And nobody stokes those fears better than the right-wing propaganda machine that is Fox News, Hate Radio, and social media that amplifies and broadcasts that message of fear. I’m deathly afraid that now that the oligarchs and kleptocrats running things mostly in the background (a notable exception being Trump himself—nothing “background” about that kleptocrat) have seen that IT WORKS.
So, Mr. Kristof, how do we reach these people with a compelling, *emotional* message that will bypass or break through the right-wing drum-beating message of fear?
176
By telling people we believe in them enough to invest in them. That is how. And not by asking them to pony up more money so they can have (insert solution) which will make their lives better.
18
@David Walker I did an informal chatting survey of a dozen under-30-somethings at my workplace. Not a single one of them has access to, or watches regular TV, including Fox News, MSNBC or CNN. They stream via Hulu and Netflix for what they watch...solely entertainment shows. They don't listen to AM talk radio either. They've never listened to Rush Limbaugh once in their lives. Most of them have some or no college but are all plenty smart in their own ways. I doubt seriously that any of them will be voting for Trump.
21
@Cowboy Marine
That may be, but will they be voting at all? We have lost at least two generations of civic education.
40
Two points:
Most of the Trump voters make that choice out of social and cultural identity not economics.
Even people who are underemployed and dipping into savings to buy groceries have said to me, "Well those rich people worked hard and if you were one of them would you want the socialists to take it away?"
9
Actually, the economy is not strong. The small single digit bump of wages at the bottom result from state minimum wage laws going into effect (despite vociferous objections by Republicans). Unemployment stays low mainly because we have a gig economy of no-benefit low paying jobs, so that working class families now depend on multiple jobs to keep a roof over their heads, food on the table and gas for the car. (Even then, the number of vehicle possessions last year soared, along with personal consumer debt reaching highest ever heights) So where does this story of "strong economy come from? In part from Trump manipulations and data suppression-it was found that there was an "over-reporting of 500,000 job gains in 2019 so about one of six job gains reported for last year were fictitious. But the 24/7 billion dollar Trump disinformation campaign convinces some people, including economists who should certainly know better,that huge profits at the top (mainly from deregulation and tax give aways) constitute good times for all.
12
Someone has probably mentioned this observation elsewhere: Many people need three jobs to make ends meet. You can claim adding a whole lot of jobs, but what kinds of jobs? What kinds of benefits? What kind of security?
16
The educated, urban elite also need to recognize how the middle class is suffering and why it will probably contribute to re-electing Trump. If people with a college degree are sheltered from the crisis described in this article, then it's not only the working class that is depressed. Increasingly, the middle class cannot afford to send its children to college! Debt slavery depression is real for those of us in student loan bondage. We know we don't want that future for our children--what can we do when even public higher ed is beyond our reach?
12
Why would any of the middle class currently suffering as you describe, or people further down the economic ladder who are having an even worse time, vote for Donald Trump? Despite what he says, he has done nothing to help their suffering, and in fact wants to be lauded for making their lives better. This isn’t a problem caused by illegal immigration or trade deficits.
7
@Louise Cavanaugh Because his rhetoric about a time when America was "great"--in other words, when it had a strong middle class, resonates. And the middle class' support of Trump certainly has everything to do with his anti-globalization platform (i.e. globalization as the cause of increased illegal immigration and trade deficits).
1
It may be a crazy fluke thing personally for me, but I look at The Netherlands more and more as the place to be.
It can easily cost a million Euros to build a tunnel so cars on some minor road pass under a bike path, but these sort of changes are maybe what is needed. Lots of little 1 million Euro tunnels.
Public transportation projects can cost even more, but maybe what is needed is infrastructure changes.
The Americans are driving around in their cars, isolated in their little metal bubbles, honking their car horns at each other... it is just a lousy life, living in America.
The death of network television has altered things too. No more Saturday nights watching Mary Tyler Moore together.
People have become isolated little islands. More money isn’t really what is needed, perhaps, just more money spent wisely.
The American dream has muted in subtle ways, and become a nightmare, perhaps.
24
@David Martin It’s not crazy. I’m 5ft tall so wouldn’t move to the Netherlands, but they are one of the best run countries in the world.
You raise some interesting points about shared culture creating common ground, an underestimated element in the growing polarization and intolerance.
There is still a lot more of it in small countries, where the choice of books, movies and series in their own language is limited so that even asynchronously people end up watching/reading the same things.
4
The best economy in the history of the United States would be insufficient to justify Trump.
21
@irunrva
So well said! Thank you!
2
Classic sophistry. If the numbers are bad blame Trump. If the numbers are good, reject the data, fish out anecdotes, and blame Trump. There are no economic data that Democrats will accept as positive, as this runs counter to their proposed narrative.
5
@LTJ No, the economy for many of us is great. I'm non-college, working class and about to retire and am very happy when I look at my retirement accounts. I thought Trump would wreck the economy, but I was wrong. I don't necessarily agree with all his moves, but they're not making it worse.
However, I'm an African American female, and he is wrecking many other things in the country and world-wide. He is weakening alliances with our best friends to suck up to despots. Domestically, he has emboldened white supremacists racists to trumpet their abhorrent views as acceptable alternatives.
That's what I can't abide (part of it anyway).
1
Certainly economic conditions and drug dependency affect depression and suicide. But I think you also need to take a hard look at the so-called mental health profession and the influence of big pharma. Yeah, big pharma brought us the opioid crisis but it also brought us pills to "treat" depression that make them lots of money but seem to be ineffective. The quality of mental health counseling is also dubious, and this is possibly related to low or zero reimbursement rates by health insurance for mental health counseling (but they will pay for those pills!).
8
Democrats have got to make the argument that while the economy's new barometer, the stock market, is doing well, it is only due to Trump being able to get the lightest lifting done. The stock market is doing well because of two things, first the corporate tax cuts. Lowering taxes ALWAYS brings a larger bottom line to the companies that avoid them...er pay them. Democrats have never denied this. But it's the lowest hanging fruit. And there are costs to picking it.
The second thing has been done under Trump's guidance is the getting rid of any restraints on business to do what they want in the pursuit of profits. Democrats don't deny that removing regulations, mostly designed for the good of most of America, the future, the planet, the flora, the fauna, will cut into corporate bottom lines. But they result in benefits that aren't quantifiable in terms of money. They are about a better future for more Americans.
A GOP "yes" vote is an absolute given when it comes to tax cuts for the wealthy and gutting regulations. Democrats don't promote such things because they know that they are harmful to the masses and to the future. Not because they don't think they'll increase profits.
I can see why a shortsighted selfish single person would vote for Trump and continued stock market gains. What I don't see is why anyone who is unselfish and/or has children with a longer time horizon then they, can vote for a guy who will gut the future in the pursuit of profits for profit's sake.
16
@Brian: educated suburban women are probably the main ones you’re referring to, that know better but vote against their own interests. But they also follow their husbands’ leads, who are repubs. Sad to say, that’s still a thing. I am one of them and don’t see much independent thinking in the group. If there was, ERA would’ve been taken care of long ago.
4
Many educated suburban women I know are very anti Trump, but not all. Many of their husbands are as well. But I live in a mostly blue state. Partisanship has so infected our country that people support their team without rational thought being involved.
1
Where did you get the $800,000 figure in increased wealth? I looked at that chart you linked to and its shows $44,715.561 at the start of 2000 and $113,832.434 for Households and Non-Profits by the third quarter of 2019. By my calculator that's an increase of about $69,000. I have no idea why the St. Louis Fed went to three decimal points in their data, but there's a period there not a comma.
Why group households and non-profits like hospitals and the Ford Foundation together anyway? A median figure of wealth of households would be useful, not this measure. Better you link to the CBS video of the pie showing a huge portion for the 1%, the crumbs for prosperous working people and negative wealth (debt) for the lowest section of working people.
Anyway a larger point is that we're accumulating this wealth at the cost of hyperpollution of the atmosphere with carbon dioxide and methane and other greenhouse gases. My I link to PEP's countdown to 2030 by which time we MUST cut down CO2 emissions nearly in half?
https://pepeace.org/climate-and-nature
5
@Stanley Heller, those are aggregate figures, expressed in billions of dollars. So the aggregate increase is $69,000 billion, or $69 trillion. If you spread that around by the number of households you may get a mean number close to $800,000--though I haven't done the math. That's also a mean number, not a median, and we know that the gains are tremendously skewed toward wealth households.
I think working class wage gains are not "partly" due to local increases in minimum wages, but mostly due to local..and state...mandated minimum wage increases where Democrats are in legislative majorities and have fought for them against the usual Republican opposition. Hopefully whomever ends-up as the Dem's presidential nominee will underscore this and not let Trump and the GOP get away with taking any credit for it.
17
When Trump took office the economy was healthy and getting stronger by the day. So he didn’t have to do anything to have a good economy.
But he did do something . He started rolling back environmental regulations thereby lowering production costs and increasing profits. And the economy got even stronger.
But those regulations were put in place to battle against global warming and its various manifestations like extreme weather. And the sort of thing that has happened to California and Australia.
So the economy is stronger than ever. But at a cost that will be paid over and over as the effects of climate change grow more and more prevalent in the decades to come.
30
@Bill Howard
Excellent point.
Trump's "contribution" has been burdening our children with both debt and environmental damage for the sake of a short term economic gain.
As most people focus a huge share of their energy on their children or, more generally, the future, they will see this for what it is. Trump cares about Trump and only Trump.
14
@Bill Howard
You are correct.
As Trump, and his cohorts, reduce regulations, it results in lower costs for business. Reductions in environmental regulations, and the resultant impacts on the environment, are "externalized."
The costs are paid by those, like individual homeowners in California, whose homes are destroyed by raging firestorms; by communities located near industrial sights that experience cancers at rates far above the average; by species, other than human, that are driven from their normal ranges and cannot find appropriate food sources and habitat necessary to sustain symbiotic behaviors that have evolved over eons; and future human generations that will experience even greater impacts from the mess.
But, overall, the most recent quarterly reports look fantastic.
My heart is deeply dismayed.
And some claim that humans are intelligent.
5
Every error made by an employee of a large company (in this case 74,000 people), is not a policy being applied or an outcome desired.
I wonder if the rise in jobs has anything to do with the fact that many working-class people have to have more than one job to make ends meet and cover health issues and perhaps pay for child care.
32
@Portia: you’ve got it.
3
I fear that no matter the next president, left, right, or center, they will face an economic disaster.
The CEO panel assembled by the White House before the "tax reform" said they would NOT prioritize jobs. They prioritized buy back of stock and buying other companies. That has held true.
Trump has bullied the Fed into keeping their interest rate low in good times, which is counter to their need to raise it a bit to prepare for the next downturn.
The tax reform-caused loss of revenue has increased debt by about 1.5 trillion.
Trump is blaming poor Americans by reducing anything poor people might need to advance - education, assistance, healthcare including abortion and contraception, and jobs.
Of course he's also hollowed out all the other offices, too, so that any meaningful regulation is becoming impossible.
When Sanders and Warren talk about paying for improvements by taxing the wealthy, they're going to have to get the money, first. I doubt it will be done in their administrations.
8
I am retiring from my job after 43 years. I have always been a member of a union.
I started my job in 1978 with a good pay scale and excellent benefits. I was able to buy a house in the Bay Area within 1 year of employment. Most of my co-workers also bought houses and some even bought income producing property........in the San Francicso Bay Area.
We never had to worry about health care, we went to the doctor whenever it was necessary.
When we had families our children went to good schools and if the children wanted to go to college they went.
It is time for me to retire, I am ready because my company , my union and my country protected me during my 43 years of employment. I lost my pension when my company filed bankruptcy but I joined the 401k savings plan. I am grateful for that.
I pray for my young co-workers that the company, the union, and our great country will be able to provide them with enough security. They deserve that.
18
I am the upper middle class retired person who now pays more taxes and worries about national debt. I have reduced my lifestyle, but cannot sell my beautiful home because no one is buying high end homes due to the high, no deductible, taxes.
I feel like I am in a Ponzi scheme, but always the one paying the taxes.
Vacations have stopped, I clean my own home, take care of my disabled husband and hope we don’t live too long.
I will vote for any Democrat over the Republican Party. They are the lesser of evils.
23
The Dow is not "the economy". The Unemployment rate is not the economy. Average wages rising due to states and cities enacting higher minimum wages is not the economy.
16
I do not believe the economy is great. Trump will bankrupt the country and is on his way to doing so. The 'great' economy might be for GOP Senators who received lots of cash for their 'campaigns' prior to the impeachment vote or maybe for people like Bezos who pay no taxes while putting everyone else out of business. The great economy is a great big lie, Trump style.
21
Politics is perception, and the Trump campaign apparatus is geared up to paint the rosiest picture of the economy ever seen before, relentlessly, on every available propaganda platform. The facts, the fine points, will be buried under a blanket of half-truths and misinformation. The GOP is hopeless at governing, but when it comes to a freewheeling campaign, they are a force to behold.
11
Deaths of Despair. Yes. And I am one who worked whenever I could and still cared for a seriously ill child and then helped send her to college. I am now on Social Security and recently, since the mere cost of living increase, received word that I no longer qualify for extra help with my RX. I despair about what benefits will next be removed from the small social security I was able contribute when I was able to work.
The already poor cannot own homes for equity, contribute to a private retirement plan or invest. All many of us have as we age is what we were able to pay into Social Security. I can see many who worked all their lives feeling this despair, while we watch our children with college degrees struggle despite of the claims of a strong economy.
Two Americas. And those of us in the Other America had better get ourselves out to vote this year and work to reverse this trend for future generations. Don't ever despair if you still can vote.
32
The greatest threat to the health and well-being of millions of Americans is the Republican party. The poor and working class are most at risk. As long as rural whites - Trumps's base - continue to vote for Republicans, and against their own interests, there will be deaths of despair.
Yet it's avoidable. Universal health care, a robust safery net, free college and vocational education, would go a long way to remedying the underlying problems. Every other developed country long ago discovered that taking care of their citizens creates a happier, healthier, and more productive society. Our failure to recognize accept, and act upon such truths are the true legacy of Reagan and his party.
America desperately needs everything Bernie Sanders says and stands for.
19
Mr. Kristof you have been on this train for a long time. You are both right and wrong. I live in WNC in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. This the poorest area of NC by far. It is not the tech triangle around Durham. It is also the most conservative. Our representative is Mark Meadows. (59% of the vote). A friend who grew up in the area west of liberal Asheville knows them all too well. To her they will never change--ever. Take away my health care, my job opportunities and on it goes, but I will stand with any one who will deny women access to abortion. This is the reality and all my and your sympathy will change nothing. They will again vote for the most despicable, immoral politician I could ever imagine. I have a masters and I'm depressed too.
37
@amp , Yet we educated coastal “elites” keep trying to help them. Why and how do we keep trying to help people who won’t help themselves?
Unfortunately there are bigger problems- nuclear proliferation and climate change- that affect the whole world. For those reasons Republicans MUST be stopped.
5
It never feels like help when someone prescribed a solution. It feels like someone talking down to you.
1
Also, farm bankruptcies are UP 20%.
And that's after Trump* pouring billions into the sector after he completely blew it with China.
15
@rosa, in Wisconsin where I live, we are losing farmers to suicides and farms are disappearing due to a large increase in bankruptcies, particularly since the "easily winnable" trade wars began. Meanwhile, the Republicans in control of our state government even though we the people elected a Democratic Governor and Lt. Governor and state AG, among others, are clamoring once again for MORE tax cuts for the rich and less revenue sharing with cash-strapped municipalities, towns and villages. They also want to continue to starve our formerly great public state university and educational systems of much needed funding.
17
@Jan N
They are a cult, Jan.
No matter what is said they yell back, "More Tax Cuts!", even though there has never been a tax-cut in the last 45 years that improved anything for any state or the Feds.
Even Rush Limbaugh laughs at them, pointing out that that all that talk is "bogus".
Here's the link to his sneering at his own Party's history:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/17/politics/rush-limbaugh-debt-trump/index.html
Yes. You have a HUGE problem. Maybe if they hear it out of Rush's own mouth they will all realize how totally they have all been had.
Or, maybe not.
Cult's are like that, yes?
2
I'm still trying to find that $800,000 in new wealth that I'm supposed to have accumulated since 2000. Geez - I worked 46 years full-time and thought I was doing great with about $225,000 in rollover IRAs when I retired plus around $100,000 in equity in my basic 3 bedroom/1 bath ranch house just over 1,000 square feet. But to realize I've somehow misplaced $800,000, yikes!
13
While he cuts much needed support for people in real need, Trump charges 650 dollars a night for the secret service to stay at his hotel, effectively pocketing money earned by honest, working citizens. I want to stop paying taxes. I don’t want to give my hard-earned money to this law-breaking president.
19
@Y-F
I think the issue is whether the Secret Service is paying a fair market rate for services and rooms provided. At $650 per night, across from the White House, they are.
@Wine Country Dude
This is actually not the issue. A "market rate" includes profit for the seller, and that seller is a public official that can essentially dictate that the money be spent.
An ethical remedy would have been to solve the problem by selling the properties involved. After all, the seller can get a "market rate" for them.
5
@Alan
Actually, it is the issue. Profit, or operating margin, is a function of risk and cost. As the owner of a valuable property, who incurred risk and incurs costs, he is entitled to a reasonable profit, as would any owner.
Certainly, if he advertised "Stay with me, even though it costs more, and get the best terms on your government deal", that would be wrong, but that does not happen except in Democrats' wildest dreams.
Of course the actual pain and vulnerability of the non-wealthy is primary, but the daily sorrow of those of us more fortunate who have empathy, who follow the teachings of human wisdom to stay awake, is perhaps "also great, and would suffice" for depression.
6
@Lee, so what, exactly, are you doing to assuage your empathy for us poor pathetics out here in the real world?
Fear mongering by the media causes massive stress
the country is in way better shape than the media portrays.
it's their business model, to engage us with stuff that is gripping. "Joe went about his day and all is well" doesn't make good copy.
only bad news is generally reported. It infects our minds.
our brains are wired through evolution to look for danger, bad news, to worry.
take in the good.
3
@ joe, sure . Keep head in sand, “don’t believe what you see with your own eyes or hear with your own ears , believe me”. Quote from dear leader.
1
Will the choice be security (economic) at the price of living under the upcoming (technically it has already begun) Trump dictatorship? Any economic benefits might eventually be temporary/illusory. The loss of freedom will not. And then there are always the many who would happily pare their economic comfort in exchange for the psychological "comfort" of living under a dictator; i.e. will sleep soundly knowing that Daddy Trump is looking after them. Or so they'll think.
4
The Ryan / McConnell / Trump 2017 tax cuts for the rich are increasing the deficit from $600 Billion to $1 Trillion.
The projected ten year increase in the debt is $12 Trillion which is $80,000 per taxpayer.
All to be paid for by us, our children, and grandchildren.
Every Republican senator voted for it. Not one Democratic senator voted for it.
This is after eight years of Republicans relentlessly railing about the debt when it was Obama.
What they didn’t tell you was that W Bush took a balanced budget, zero deficit, from Clinton and handed Obama a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit.
W Bush also doubled the debt.
And with two “tax cuts for the job creators” we got 3 Million jobs.
W Bush also handed Obama the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Obama got us through the Great Recession, cut the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion.
We got 11.5 Million jobs, almost 400% more than W Bush. And that was with the “jobs-killing” Obama-care.
And 20 Million people got health-care.
I wouldn't mind if Trump voters got fleeced but the rest of the country is getting fleeced, too.
JOBS:
2011 - 2.09 Million
2012 - 2.14 Million
2013 - 2.30 Million
2014 - 3.00 Million
2015 - 2.71 Million
2016 - 2.24 Million
2017 - 2.06 Million
2018 - 2.40 Million
17
@Independent, many of those so-called "new jobs" are actually job vacancies being filled as 10,000 babyboomers a day on average are now retiring. We're actually not filling all of the vacancies they are leaving behind - 10,000 x 30 days average is 300,000 jobs needing replacement workers every month. But that's not happening based on the Trump administration's own numbers!
2
As a college educated person, this definitely still affects me. Anytime I leave my house, I pass mentally ill(?) people sleeping in tents in public places. There are potholes in the streets. A few weeks ago a drug addict tried to break into my house while I was alone with my children.
I think about emigrating all the time. (It’s a very complicated decision.)
I don’t see how conservatives are so stingy with social services when we all end up paying a price eventually.
29
An unemployment rate of 3.6% sounds like full employment, but it's a misleading statistic. It only counts people who are out of work and have been activity searching for a job in the previous 4 weeks. People who have been out of work for up to a year but haven't been active in the last week are not included, but are classified as "marginally attached". Anyone who's been unemployed for over a year is classified as having "left the workforce", even if they want to work.
The unemployment rate also doesn't include people who are working part time (almost always without benefits) but want more hours. It also doesn't include people who are working at jobs that pay less than others for which they're qualified (underemployed).
If you count everyone who wants a decent job, the rate is over 20% rather than 3.6%, which is hardly full employment.
16
"t is these working-class Americans, white and black alike, who have seen earnings collapse, family structure disintegrate and mortality climb."
What concerns me, in particular, is that young working people do not even realize it was not always this way.
11
Mr. Kristof is unwilling to confront how the policies his newspaper has advocated for 50 years, "free trade" and more-or-less "open borders", has destroyed the US working class. I've shut down production in my business in the USA because it's impossible to compete with semi-slave labor abroad. And there is no upward pressure on wages because there is a flood of immigrants - legal and illegal - willing to work for less.
10
@Si Campbell, blame a free and easy tax code that favors multi-national corporations and others to transfer our wealth overseas. If we taxed the goods these zero tax paying corporations (Amazon, etc.) and/or taxed the overseas income these corporations make by sucking wealth out of the pockets and jobs out of the United States to essentially slave labor third-world countries (including China), there would be more than enough money to provide all U.S. citizens with a decent standard of living including publicly funded health care for ALL.
1
Trump isn't helping and Mr. Kristof you aren't either. I love my country, our country very much. So much that I expect much from them. The potential of the United States of America is magnificent. I hope that our political leaders can live up to their potential and promises. Those promises have to do with people living together in both freedom and love. "Freedom" and "Love" are simple words. They are not simple actions. Freedom, true freedom, means something different, something more than a "me first" kind of individualism.
5
To claim Trump has done nothing for the lower socioeconomic tranches is incorrect:
On healthcare, Trump's price transparency and increased generics are good start. Anything more ambitious will take bipartisan effort, which won't come until after the Fall election.
On the economy, the China trade war has helped. I'm in manufacturing and anecdotally, I see manufacturing coming back -- mostly to Mexico true -- but it's coming back. The new North American Trade Deal helps too -- and in this area there is some bi-partisan agreement. On Energy, cutting regulations and opening lands for oil exploration, is more jobs. With fracking, we are building a new energy infrastructure to support energy export. Trump by cutting regulations and opening new lands, is spurring this development. I'm in Pennsylvania and I see the effects of this transition every day. Am I worried about the long term effects on the environment? Resoundingly 'YES' -- but that wasn't the focus of the article.
Lastly, Trump's increased defense spending is helping goose the economy. Look at the performance of companies in aerospace/space/marine, and you'll see strong performance. Again more jobs and $ in American's pockets. Am I worried about the effect of this spending on the deficit? Again, resoundingly 'YES' -- but the deficit wasn't what the article was about.
Bottom line, don't say Trump's actions aren't helping the working class. Thin analysis Mr. Kristof, very thin - and I'm a Democrat.
2
You focus on Americans with only a high school diploma or less who are suffering. Then there are professionals like me. I'm a college graduate with an advanced terminal degree teaching college, but who can only find work as an adjunct professor. Due to slashes in government funding and the rise in administration hiring, the only way into academia now is through contingent faculty. We are all qualified, with MBAs, MFAs, PhDs and years of experience, but are forced to travel to multiple campuses, often teaching twice the course load of full-time faculty, all without benefits, job security, or health insurance, and in most states, denied unemployment benefits during breaks (even though we must pay into it). The health insurance I do have is through Obamacare, which is steadily being eroded. So where is this economy flourishing for me? If the key to its bounty is a college degree, then remember your children are being taught by professors who can't afford to send their own children to where they work. For thousands like me, from community colleges to the Ivy League across the country, we're working for change through union organizing, the only real chance to level the playing field in this increasing polarized world.
59
I couldn’t afford to be an adjunct professor. Childcare cost me twice as much as my salary, though I taught four classes and an independent study.
23
This is a Mitch McConnell road block as much as it is trump’s. Imagine integrating the House’s proposed infrastructure bill with the rebuild American schools bills that sit in the heaps of great ignored bills on Mitch McConnells desk.
Imagine a middle school in a lower middle income or even impoverished neighborhood where during the day students received state of the art educations on line and in discussion groups but additionally that building is the heart of community. Healthy meals (fresh veggies etc) are served for free breakfasts lunches and dinners all 7 days; exercise (basketball courts, volley ball courts, aerobic cycling classes, yoga and dance classes occur in the evenings for all 15 and older, free counseling is available for family planning, anxiety depression and substance abuse. A small wellness clinic for blood pressure and weight management would be open and free 4pm-11 pm. And classes in the evening also 4-11, on the same computers and with in person teaching are available for adults, while kids are cared for again for free. My guess is that within 5 years the towns with such operations would be healthier happier and more successful. In 10 years the program should pay back enormously. All of this is possible if Mitch McConnell and his GOP posse get the boot. Imagine a Mitchless trump.
22
@Connie Amazed Sounds like a good plan and a good use of an expensive resource. The question is: where is the additional revenue for increased staff and operating expenses going to come from?
I am so disgusted with Trump for claiming that we are doing so well in this country, when it is a blatant lie and ignores a large percentage of our population that faces intense suffering on a daily basis. Touting how the rich have increased their wealth, while 400,000 children have lost healthcare coverage, shows a lack of compassion not seen in this country for decades. What keeps me sane is the knowledge that there are many more good people in this world that those who use greed as their mantra. Thank you Mr. Kristoff for ensuring that we are constantly aware of the suffering that surrounds us. But I for one would like to hear from more good people and their actions to make the world a better place.
18
Mr. Kristoff is right to question the administration's claim about the overall health of the economy.
The political establishment has long focused public attention primarily on unemployment and inflation statistics, but these data have been politicized for years through changes in the statistical definitions and calculations. Millions of people who are unemployed are not counted and most folks experience cost of living increases far higher than those reported. So despite the administration's claims, the economy is not nearly as good as advertised, especially when one looks at alternative measures of social health.
The adoption of alternative measures of economic well being should be encouraged. There is a lot of literature on the subject but it is ignored or downplayed by decision makers. The prerequisite is for professional economists to debunk the validity of national income accounting, at least insofar as representing the true economic reality for the majority of the population.
6
It’s devastating to watch this happen to valued neighbours who have been good friends for decades.
We in Canada are anxious and worried and very sorry you are experiencing this.
15
If we can’t elect anyone but a moderate who will merely nibble around the edges of this system, can we please come live with you?
2
@Lilly
@Annie Belanger
Annie, we are anxious and worried, too. Moreover, we are worried that this will have serious negative repercussions around the world.
That's silly, Lilly. Every one of these Democratic candidates is planning to do significant things. All of them believe in the same broad aims. And all of them are going to be able to get the same amount of stuff done, depending on their own individual practical governing skills. We get it. You love your guy. The big question for every one of us that we should all answer in the affirmative is, will you support the Democratic nominee no matter who it is?
1
"almost half of Americans aged 25 and over with only a high school diploma are no longer in the labor force." The "unemployment" data is based on people actively looking for work. People who are no longer in the labor force are no longer counted in the "unemployment" numbers. That's one reason they're so low.
17
A lot of the reason businesses are doing so well, (extraction, banking, etc.) is because trump is letting them do whatever they want, no holds barred. Of course they need worker bees to work harder and earn less to keep them rolling along. Sanders and Warren hit the nail on the head when they talk about government corruption and corporate greed.
18
One thing I'd like to add:
This crisis is NOT invisible for those with a college degree if what they hope to do is help (non-rich people) for a living.
For example, if you choose to become a college teacher, what you'll soon learn is that the majority of college teachers often make less than 30 k a year. College teachers don't get health care benefits, either, and their teaching schedules-- ie, their jobs-- can suddenly disappear if enrollment numbers suddenly change the week before classes start.
This kind of situation-- ie, very low pay for those with higher degrees-- is similar to the many MSW's who elect to take jobs with heart.
Of course, many of the people who are able to keep these jobs are women who can only afford to do their jobs because they have support from partners and spouses...
But it's a crisis, for sure. And its a crisis that is spreading.
From what I can see, in other words, few are immune here.
40
@Wendy Maland Right you are! Thank you for highlighting us social workers who work for nothing. And people in this country rant and rave about lack of mental health care.
3
I want my $800,000 that I somehow accrued since 2000. It must be here somewhere, trickling down like rain from the swells who are killing it in the stock market. I need to check the internet to see if there's an unknown account with my money in it.
If the Trump Administration is saying so, you kniow it's true.
But sarcasm goes nowhere. It's true that no matter what health insurance you have, dental health and mental health aren't well covered. A running gag in Austin Powers movies was about the horrendous teeth most brits had in the 60's. That's us today. People die from dental infections and mouth inflanmmation affects the heart as well. No need to reflect on the availability of mental health insurance. Suicides compete with heart disease and cancer for top billing in the deaths of Americans.
It's shameful that one's health care is tied to either a job in a large company, or to the ACA which the trump mob is intent on canceling.
With $800,000 per household increase in wealth, you'd think we could afford to be healthy.
22
I can’t wrap my head around paying out of pocket for healthcare. I also *really* don’t understand the hostility and lies surrounding single payer healthcare. The waiting list thing? I just laugh. I was referred for a transplant on December 28. My appointment is on March 12. This is *typical*. I’ve never waited longer than a few weeks for a specialist. When I need to see ANY of my specialists, I get in same day or same week. I have Crohn’s, epilepsy, PSC(hence the transplant), lupus and clits in my lungs. Total cost to me of my medical care to date (multiple surgeries, hospitalizations, tests, etc.):$0.00. Total cost to me of transplant (including meds, covered because I’m a high risk of complications patient)? Also zero.
Healthcare is a human right. Once your whole country is healthy, quality of life for your workforce- physical and mental - improves.
13
@ Annie, yeah, I can attest that the wait list mantra is bogus. I stepped on a sea urchin and could barely walk on my foot. First I had to get an appointment with my GP to get a referral to a podiatrist, one week wait. Then make appointment with foot doctor, 2 weeks. All while hopping around on one foot. So efficient is our system.
4
A few reminders about the Obama economy. A) He inherited an economic crisis. It was close to rock bottom. It had nowhere to go but up. And it did eventually recover. Those were painful and lost economic years.
B) Obama lost both the house and the senate to Republicans by his second Term. While the Republicans are also fiscal charlatans, the divided congress did more for the economy than Obama class warfare and his deep social policies did to destroy it.(Clinton also lost Congress, in two years, quickly forcing him right)
4
You skipped the part where you explain exactly what the Republicans did to improve the economy.
You just got through saying that Obama did nothing but inherit a mess from a Republican controlled administration and Congress and that the only way to go for the economy was up.
Then you conclude the Republicans “fixed the economy” they had presided over during the second worst economic recession of the 20th century by essentially doing the same thing and then they lost the presidential election in 2012, too?
I have a question. Why didn’t the Republicans fix the mess before 2008 and then go on to defeat Obama because they had done the right thing for the economy? Should’ve been easy, huh?
You should re-evaluate your conclusion.
Also, Obama’s AG was an attorney on Wall St who failed to use the law to hold any of the financiers who brought us the 2008 collapse of credit markets. Obama fixed nothing either. His administration set the stage for a repeat of 2008, economically speaking, by failing to call out the abuses and fraud on Wall St, the world banking sector, and tax evasion. The Panama Papers were released during his administration and still nada action on the rampant fraud of the rarified world of billionaires.
Democrats and Republicans are both terrible for a future economy, I conclude. What say you?
1
The divided Congress did not implement the stimulus, bank bailout, and auto bailout that the Tea Party and Republicans loat their minds over.
1
So the folks who voted for Trump are being hurt the most? I think Just World Hypotheses has a message for these folks.
6
The author points out that the "economy" is not doing well for many. So let's quit touting the number of new jobs each month as an indicator and, instead, report the average wage for hourly workers. That will be a benchmark by which to measure how the economy is working for lower income people.
19
A high hourly wage doesn’t mean anything if you can only get a couple hours of work. The paycheck is still too small.
3
cherry picking data points and presenting all with a negative light doesn't change the fact that many things are better. Much better.
Millions try to come to the US every year because, indeed, life is good here.
meanwhile, employment is up up up, and wages are rising too now. Wages are rising even for the lower rungs of income.
It's not perfect. But the sky is not fallen. Nor are those folks, "forgotten". My heart goes out to those suffering.
Capitalism ain't perfect, but it is FAR BETTER than any alternative. Bernie has been a vocal supporter of Hugo Chavez' policies and that path was disastrous. He also had vocally admired the Soviet Russian system, for decades. Facts.
Many jobs have gone to lower income economies around the world. The world isn't like in the 1950's and 1960s, and that stellar growth wasn't gonna last forever. Things are ok. Let's no risk it all on some mirage of socialist nirvana that does not exist.
5
You seem to argue that, yeah, it’s tough, but not for me, so I’m just gonna throw out some platitudes about why it’s okay to leave behind human beings, because, (me checks notes) socialism is bad.
That’s an argument for doing nothing. A better system does not have to be modeled on socialism in order for the rewards of the economy to be shared more equitably among those having difficulties providing themselves the necessity of life today e.g. affordable and good quality healthcare, the ability to save for the future job market, the ability to sleep indoors, eat healthful food, drink clean water, breathe clean air, having time for personal psychological health and time to be engaged in family and community.
You’ll leave people to the tender mercies of a system that makes a point of reinforcing that it cares more about money than the people who do the work and keep the system going and then you limit all possible alternatives to this system as socialism.
Somehow, it seems the actual problem has been ignored in this response. It’s a meme of modern pay-to-play winner-take-all politics and social life. You do realize that, I’m sure.
18
I believe that wages have been inching up largely due to increases in the minimum wage - hardly a “free market” effect. I am not a socialist, but capitalism needs boundaries and rules that make sense. Left totally unfettered, with the wealthy and powerful writing the rules, the “free market” will favor the wealthy and powerful.
5
Life isn’t that good here anymore and people know it. Most people who immigrate here are from third world countries where it’s worse and that’s not saying much.
1
It's more than inequality, it's a major symptom of capitalism on life support. Don't have the right skills? Your culture is not right? Convicted of a crime? Or fired for not being PC? You may never work again - not much different from being a serf or slave, your only hope is that someone will take pity on you. Meanwhile, the real tax rate for those on the top is lower than for a person making next to nothing, and government officials shed crocodile tears about not having enough revenue. Trump won by tapping into the angst in middle America but he now ignores those people, while the Democratic front runners speak to them - this is the hidden torpedo that could sink Trump's re-election.
12
The US was making progress on wealth inequality and poverty up until the time we started to hear the term "shareholder value". That is when the CEO's and Boards of Directors changed the entire aim of their giant corporations. Since that time Wall Street (which was always powerful) became the 9 million pound gorilla, and Main Street became a once proud relic. Outsourcing, Offshoring, automation, tech-driven manufacturing all made the few much richer and the rest got the leftovers. Shareholder value (truth be I'm a shareholder) gave B-school thinking a mansion.
9
thank you, we have a real problem of inequity, I dont know how to solve it. My father did well in the depression of the 1930s--he had a good job with a railroad which was a secure employer.
This is not available to most workers now.
We may have to consider guaranteed incomes to people pushed out of the workforce or a massive training program.
Above all, we need a better recognition of the problem.
11
I have two adult children and 5 grandkids. I have a degree.
One of my adult children has a masters degree. He and his family are doing well. he has two kids. One of his kids has a degree and was immediately hired upon graduation. The other kid is in his 3rd year of college studying engineering. I have no doubt he will quickly be employed when he finishes school.
Then there is my other adult child. He was never very ambitious and didn't really want to work.. When his brother was going to school, he was drifting around from one odd job to another. He married someone that shared his lack of ambition and they have 3 kids. They're barely surviving. Angry and sullen because they're always broke and struggling. Feeling someone owes them something. Two of their children finished high school but neither wanted to go to college. Didn't see a point. They both work a series of minimum wage jobs, just as their mother and father did. Despite me talking to them about their future, just as I did to my son, it's not getting thru. Minimum wage jobs. They are intelligent, but just can't seem to connect education with increased opportunities. They're perpetuating their parent's economic status.
My two children. Grew up in the same home. Same opportunities. But took different paths. It breaks my heart but I had to recognize that sometimes those left behind or struggling are there because of their choices. Not society or the economy.
23
That’s your experience and it makes logical sense. I know plenty of educated people who are not doing as well as they should and it’s not due to life choices.
14
And yet, someone must do these jobs. Why can they not provide a working wage and health care? Do you have to be a college graduate in this country to be deemed worthy of respect?
13
@Nancy G. My backstory which I didn't include because it would have made the comments too long. My Mom was a domestic worker, my Dad was long gone. I was a unmarried high school dropout. Had my 2 kids before I turned 18. As soon as I could take the GED test, I got a job and started out waitressing at minimum wage and for tips.
Not too long after starting to work I thought I might be able to do more. I was able to get a job as a clerical worker. After a few years of that we were doing well, but not as well as I thought we could. I ret'd to school and worked on getting my degree, finishing in 4 years going nights and weekends while I worked full time. I pursued additional professional certifications after that.
From there I continued working, and learning Laid off, downsized more times than I can count. When I was hired at my last job, I was 55. Been there every since. Yes, I do have more than a fairly tale existence that got me where I am. And did I also mention I'm a minority?
Education and continuing to learn were the keys. The difference I see in my adult children is one continues to do the same things over and over that isn't taking them anywhere. Not attempting to learn and grow. Not wanting to make some temporary sacrifices that will help them in the future.
Yes, I do have some experience to draw upon. Not just what I read in a book.
2
I’m glad USBank has tried to redress the soul-crushing actions of its policies and mid-level bureaucrats who administer such policies. But why stop there? Why not do a “Starbucks” and close down for a day and re-educate every employee on what it means to have public responsibility and do business with compassion?
3
Everyday at the large supermarket I work at I pull out my wallet to help a customer cover their bill. It’s never dollars. It’s usually about 50 cents. It’s all ages of customers. So, so many people right on that line. They have jobs, but at minimum wage and paying astronomical rent there’s nothing left. Seniors have nothing saved or has some other catastrophe happened? Sky high drug prices? So many have nothing. The relief that my small effort generates is heart breaking. The government/corporate elites have absolutely no idea the reality happening within their own country....or more probably they could care less.
30
It’s hard to say that Trump has done little to affect the struggling middle class. In the Obama years, the consensus was that the working class were the inevitable victims of globalization and technology. Andrew Yang built his campaign around that idea. But what if it’s not true? What if unfettered globalization isn’t inevitable and technology creates more opportunities for the middle class than it destroys? We did OK with electricity. The Trump economy feels more successful than the Obama economy because expectations were so incredibly low. Reread the articles the NYT published the night after the election. No collapse of the global economy, no end to democracy, no world war three. Trump has dramatically exceeded the expectations you created.
4
@Michael James Read more carefully. Blue collar and working class don't necessarily mean middle class. The numbers people use to tout the hot economy are averages that do not address the inequality in types of jobs, income and access to health care. Trump hasn't "dramatically exceeded" anything. Thanks for propagating the republican lie.
11
I am a 68 year old self employed worker. I love my work and hope to work for many more years. I made over $22,000 less last year than the year before. That happened for a number of reasons. One was as a result of two significant health issues last summer.
I will squeak by. I am writing this comment to say how much I love Medicare. It has been so helpful during this time. (My private insurance before I turned 65, was so expensive.)
I am all in for Bernie and if we can ever get Medicare for all, this country will benefit enormously.
39
More educated people tend to make smarter choices such as limiting family size. That’s a hot topic but it’s on point. There is also the issue of nonmarried parenthood. There’s a world of difference between a 42 year old CPA and a 19 year old high school dropout each having a baby without a husband. It’s not an issue I’d morality but of economics.
14
To those who believe it’s the fault of bad choices in life: this current America is designed to take everything, from every part of our lives. Please don’t allow some anecdotal narrative shape your impression of the source of the problem for the entire nation, millions and millions of hard-working Americans who are working three jobs and still can’t pay for basic necessities and are starting to give up on ever owning a home or starting a family. Is that the system you want to live in?
17
@Lilly
Indeed, though conservatives prefer the down-pointed finger of blame, the bad choices that affect most of us are made by the wealthiest for their own enrichment at our very real expense.
12
@Lilly My information isn't anecdotal. I've known many in both groups. I am not judging the choices (don't know how "I'd" was added), merely pointing out the results. You are judging me. I was suggesting the source of the problem, just showing one way in which the situation is affected for some people by some individual actions.
Sorry, Mr. Kristof, but President Trump has not neglected those Americans that helped elect him. He has hammered them nonstop with revenue giveaways to millionaires and billionaires, no infrastructure jobs, no clean energy jobs, no affordable health insurance, no affordable higher education, farm state destruction, billions wasted on a useless wall and tariff surcharges on consumer purchases. If he can convince them to return the House to GOP control in November, he can finish them off for good with more tax giveaways that make Social Security and Medicare, sadly of course, unaffordable.
31
I think you’re trying to be ironic, here, and yes, you make great points that Trump has not done anything to improve the lives of those who support him, which points to the power of narrative, doesn’t it? The poorest man I canvassed yesterday, who is literally living with his family in someone’s backyard shed was the most pathetically, ineffectually hostile and avid Trump supporter I’ve ever come across. His little children already had a hardened, angry look. It was heartbreaking. I would have never disrespected him to ask him how Trump’s policies are making this country better in any way for average Americans, but he was obviously trying to make it to the best of his ability. The truth is, Obama’s policies brought or kept these Americans to their knees. We need to change the system and make it possible to live in America again if you are willing to work, at the very least, don’t you think? The race to the bottom has us competing with those who make a couple dollars an hour. Can we agree on at least that?
5
This article reminds me that every time I hear people arguing about $15 as a decent minimum wage, I think, “for who?” $22 would be closer to a livable wage, period. A properly adjusted rise to the minimum wage would then affect everyone going up from there: that’s the real reason we won’t see a minimum wage that makes any sense in this economy. “A rising tide lifts all boats,” except that the wealthy don’t want it to lift everyone’s boat.
24
Come canvass with us! People need hope that we have this last chance to not just nibble around the edges of this brutal system.
1
Not hard to keep an already-cooking economy on an upswing — a trillion in debt funds a pretty big party. But for those not invited, it’s pretty grim.
31
I call it the phony economy because that what it really is.
21
Canvassing door to door, seeing the poverty with my own eyes, trying to urge people to vote in their own interests and combat the strip mining of what resources they have left from every part of their lives by design, and seeing how they are being fooled yet again into voting for the ones who with just tweak this system around the edges, like Pete and Amy... it’s heartbreaking.
9
This article makes a valid point. However, it's not strong enough. The situation is a lot worse. There are no wage increases, and if you manage to get a couple of increases, it is followed up with "you're no longer needed." Wage increases for what kind of jobs, fast food chains, retail? They are all part time jobs. Most of what is posted on job sites are part time only. If there are any full time, a lot of them are term jobs. The salary may attract you but you'll only be working for a few months with a "may become full time." I've been living like this for 12 years. I am outside of NE Phila., and it hasn't changed yet. I have a 2-year college degree which means nothing more than a high school diploma. I have a ton of experience, but I am a 63 year old female. I never get called. I would love to get back on my two feet again, but there is no way to conquer this process. The whole system is broken, and there are no second chances. That would be despair.
43
Hang in there, Fran. You’re not alone and we’re rooting for you. Vote blue!
There is something seriously wrong with an economy in which individual stories of success are anecdotal and millions of people have been left behind. Quality of life for too many working Americans has either deteriorated or improved at a rate lagging far behind the burgeoning rate of the upper middle class or upper class.
The Republicans, at least those on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration, spout a quasi-populist rhetoric for short-term political gain, but there is no serious effort to address the despair of the most vulnerable in our society.
A rising tide lifts all boats, except those tethered tightly by limited skills and education to the bottom of the harbor. That will never change as long as Donald Trump is the Harbormaster.
18
people vote against their own self interest.add to that the fact that computer technology will take away even more jobs and careers in the foreseeable future and many of these jobs require higher education, assosiates or bachelor's degrees. it's a very scary situation for sure. our country is once again ballooning the national debt through runaway deficits, under Republican rule, during a so called great economy. actually, as has been reported repeatedly, the economy slowed down in 2019 and the growth touted by the right has not happened. if we have another recession in the near future it could be even more devastating than the one in 2008.
11
A large part of this problem is that a college education is required for many jobs. The less educated are being eased out by automation and technology. The factories of yesterday are being torn down or being replaced by more technologically factories and business. It's a problem. Those who don't go to college have several choices, but all them require organization, motivation, and smarts. Paint houses, become a plumber, electrician, builder. The service industry is booming. Some first generation Asians labor 7 days a week, 10 hours a day, to run or work in nail salons, restaurants and the like, all back breaking work. They do this to survive, but also so the next generation can do it differently. Nothing is easy. Even with a college education, many jobs now take up the majority of one's day, leaving little time for family. Above and through it all, we all need strong mental constitutions.
12
There has never been a time in history when all members of a society shared equally in the benefits of a good economy.
3
@james That is true. But that is not the issue. The issue is that inequality today is far greater than it has been in the last 100 years.
14
@OldBoatMan Could that be because of a statistical certainty? One can't go lower than earning $0 a year, but as the economy grows the upper end of earning will rise. Thus, as long as GDP is improving, the spread between the highest earners and the non-earners will always increase. One may feel the earnings are not fairly distributed, but one can't stop an unequal level of earnings.
The issue is that, to a large extent, the greatest increases in wealth are not due to greater contributions to society or greater efficiency. A good portion is due to how we’ve constructed our economic system, with rewards and tax benefits increasingly going to the wealthiest investors.
1
The DNC needs to hire Nicholas Kristof to help shape their messaging. Its been a year on the campaign trail and the soundbite that rules is a "wealth tax". That implementing a wealth tax will help pay for health care, college, re-training of the workforce, etc.
None of the candidates are using the information at hand to first spell out the real picture like Kristof touched upon here, then give the solution. We should be talking about the fact our kids are the first generation that will not make as much as their parents. We should be sharing raw numbers and percents not of those who are mega wealthy (the 1% of the 1%), but those who make below the poverty line and those who make enough to pay bills, but not save for retirement. The train wreck that is coming.
Would love to see at each of the next debates, a backdrop of statistics for every topic discussed. The moderators could frame up the situation on the wall behind the candidates so we are all grounded first, then listen to the response. Its three hours of free press to paint the situation like it really is.
14
The DNC is actively fighting hammer and tongs against the candidate who is fighting for every American, again. The DNC is yet again trying everything possible to maintain the system that has brought millions and millions of Americans to its knees.
1
Yes there are many left out , but in reality this is what they have voted for over the 40 years. Whether or not a person likes sanders or Warren,the issues the are putting forth are the ones that will help these “ left behind “. Trump may very well get re-elected with the help of these voters so not much is going to change for them.
6
Well, if we state that the economic boom we now have is due to workings of the Obama administration, then that administration needs also to be held responsible for the wealth inequality as well. in 2008, The stock market tanked, the average person lost their job, 401ks were raided when the market was at the bottom and those folks were in holes from which there is no recovery. On the other hand, the very wealthy, or lets say those who had good educations, kept working and investing at the bottom of the market and now have the rewards So let's blame hard work, advanced educations, and good life decisions for the wealth inequalities we seen. I believe this tale is as old as time itself
4
Please spare me...and you are contradicting yourself. You claim that people are successful post recession because of a “good advanced education”, “hard work” and “good life decisions”. But if you were one of the “average people” as you claim who lost their job, was that a bad life decision? What if you couldn’t afford a “good advanced education” in the first place, or even worse, you have one but are older and nobody will hire you? What if you are willing to put in that “hard work” but aren’t given the opportunity due any number of reasons. Is that also because you didn’t make “good life decisions”? There are probably more of those people than you are aware of.
Mr. Kristoff is correct in his book and articles. So many people are experiencing pains that are not being addressed, even with the over simplified political proposals we so often get on complicated issues.
5
If I were on the Board of US Bank, I believe I would be asking for an overhaul of operations by leadership, would demand the resignations of the lame HR team who could not properly determine principle from policy , then initiate a search for a new CEO.
Outstanding reporting once again, but agree that to rely on an article of this nature to illuminate unethical business behavior is a travesty.
7
@Wills And that is why the major shareholders would never allow you on the board of US Bank.
3
I agree with all of your observations about the economy. My concern is this. If someone doesn't have a job at all, I think they would be tempted to move away from voting for Trump. However, for someone on the lower end of the economic totem pole, the difference between having a job and not having a job, is much more consequential than the potential higher pay under a president that is a Democrat. Unless Joe Sixpack has no job at all or a sick child with no healthcare, the thought of restricting gun rights or one of those 'evil' left wing democrats ripping up the constitution, should be enough to keep them in Trump's corner.
3
My experience is anecdotal, and not at all scientific, but when I look back at the people I went to high school with that are struggling they all have one thing in common. No college degree, and 4+ children that started when they were in their early 20’s. It’s a conversation we never have as a country, that having children young, maybe some would say even too young is setting yourself up for a lifetime of financial struggles. We no longer have farms that require 7-8 offspring to ensure the labor force to keep the farm going. America needs to start educating it’s populace of the financial responsibilities of having children, and what the average child will experience with no college graduate in the home. A $25k/year salary doesn’t seem like enough, and of course it isn’t when you’ve got 3 kids as well, but two adults on $50k a year, no children is indeed sufficient. People need to understand this since as a country we are not willing to provide benefits for people in this situation.
27
@Josue Azul Stop giving people tax deductions for having children.
I live in poverty-stricken rural northern Wisconsin. I cross paths with the down and out daily. My heart goes out to their kids in tow, who through no fault of their own are destined to repeat the lives of their parents.
Rural America was once such a reservoir of strength, character and good values, ... now not so much. I don't have the answer. But I note that we don't seem to value the little person. We seem to worship business in this country, ... the bigger the better. As a people we could correct so much of what is wrong, .... but apparently really we just don't care.
52
@James
You are talking for most of rural America, you know the people the Dems abandoned 45 years ago and the GOP uses and tosses aside until the next election.
We all need to demand more from our elected representatives. We need strict term limits of 2 terms period. We also need to stop wasting billions on elections. How many people could be helped with just what Bloomberg has spent so far?
12
We who vote for Democrats care. It is those who vote for the “survival of the fittest” party (Republicans) who don’t. They all need to be voted out of office.
4
I am completely astounded at the number of Trump supporters that rabidly support him despite the fact that Trump, and Republicans, are doing everything in their power to take away as much as possible, in plain sight no less, from them. The lion share of his supporters rely on receiving health care through the ACA, especially for pre-existing conditions, but Trump & company are gutting the ACA every day. Not one of Trump's policies, whether it's tariffs that INCREASE costs across the board, tax cuts for billionaires that clearly must not have enough money, cutting Medicaid, and threatening cuts in both Medicare and Social Security, is going to help any of them. Every single Red State receives more federal money than they pay in, which goes for roads, infrastructure, and health care. Blue States pay in more and receive less. And every single day there's an announcement that some longstanding protection for our air, water, or environment has been overturned by this administration. Trump supporters in Red States have their heads in the sand, preferring fantasy over reality, and all of our children will pay for it.
75
@Michael Gilbert Really? You shouldn't be shocked that ordinary people support him. I despair that there are still people who don't get it.
The people who support Trump feel they have no other option. They have been forgotten for decades and dealing with the horrible situations Mr. Kristof has been describing over the past few weeks.
Until Mr. Kristof's recent efforts to educate us, the crisis facing a major proportion of the population was unknown among many more privileged people. Or it was known, but conveniently blamed on those suffering. But Mr. Kristof has done an excellent job (although shamefully late) of educating us. I don't understand how anyone could have just read his article and still be "astounded" that there are Trump supporters.
No one is doing anything to help these people and of course they're going to go for the person who at least bothers to recognize they exist. That's Trump.
There are Democrats, of course, who want to help them. But Warren won't win the nomination and Buttigieg and Biden will be about business as usual (i.e., helping the rich, not putting kids in cages but also not doing anything to substantially improve the lives of the poor).
15
Trump recognizes that “they exist” like a carnival barker recognizes an easy mark.
2
I come from an area like the ones Mr. Kristof's last few columns have described. For years, I wondered why he, his colleagues, and his counterparts seemed to care so deeply about the suffering among immigrant communities in coastal cities or among people overseas, yet ignored the situation at home completely. I wondered (and still do) if this is why more privileged people so often hold the poor in contempt if they think about them at all.
The generally contemptuous comments about Trump voters have hardly changed during Trump's time in office though and Democrats are largely supporting Buttigieg instead of Warren because they know he's a "safe" paid of hands (i.e., it will be business as usual, with the already-privileged retaining their huge unearned advantages where there are people who can't afford basics). So that shows me that although the media has played its part, people know exactly what they're doing.
I'm nearly 43 with a PhD in engineering, a work ethic that involves working seven days a week, a frugal lifestyle, and a job history that includes some of the best-known institutions in the world. Without parental support, even someone like me can't afford a house or kids. I had to wait until I spent a couple of years working in Switzerland to get painful ovarian cysts and dental issues taken care of or even identified. My friends who have also not had parental support are in similar situations, while those who had a leg up at some point are living in luxury.
31
Your own story tells you why it's insane for the people Kristoff describe to vote Republican. Yet they do it. Why? Don't you see that you have start by electing the moderate candidate (not that Warren is that radical in a European perspective) in order to get enough of the moderate Republicans on board? If Warren is elected, as likely as not she'll be constrained at every turn by Republicans in Congress. This is not an issue you can fix in four short years. This is a process which will take at least a decade, probably more.
5
@Teo For over three decades, the Democrats' strategy has been to become more and more like Republicans.
You have seen the consequences for yourself--President Trump.
Yet here you are coming up with excuses as to why there needs to be yet another Democrat leader who will do nothing for those who voted for Trump after decades of being ignored.
Good luck with that strategy.
7
@Teo
Warren has been a Republican for most of her life. She is beholden to Corporate America and already has puppet strings attached. We will not see a difference with Warren as president. The rich will continue to get richer and the lower classes forgotten.
Letters, combined, create words.
Which, voiced, express sounds. Caught.
Which can be heard. Listened to.
Meanings, hidden and transparent, are created. Accepted. Derided. NO noed!
Challenged. Dismissed. Nuanced.
Used and misused. Perverted. Mantrafied. Transmitting ideas.
New ones. Needed ones. Zombie ideas, which refuse to die. Fostering FACTS, fictions and fantasies. Including creative "alt-facts."
Words serve as bridges. As barriers too.
Words describe. All too often instead of explaining. Some words represent complications. Some, complexities. THEY are not the same. Not because their letters differ, even as THEY share some of the same.
"Deaths of Dispair," a new creation, focuses on...
LIVES OF DESPAIR is more than words. Analyzed data. A term. A concept. A derived meaning. Label. A Category. A Process. A Trajectory. An Outcome; expected or not. A Mantra. A "fetus," devoid of "personhood," born from the toxic coupling of an ongoing, enabled, empowered, unsated, WE-THEYness.
All around US. Amidst the complacents and the complicits.
The "dispairing,"can BE resilient in their holding on. Refusing to die. Tying an unmeasurable "knot" to the end of their experienced rope. Holding on. Some even swing. Exhausted.
Lives of unending, unnuanced, despair.
All around each of US who choose to BE aware, look and see.
Choose to attend, listen and hear.
Choose to make a difference that can make a sustainable, needed difference.
Choose not to BE and remain SILENT.
3
sometimes there is a very good reason to forget
the "forgotten man"
1
Democrats back generous social welfare programs for the poor—ranging from Medicaid to food stamps to welfare. But they do a whole lot less for the working class, who make up the great majority of the uninsured. As a result, the working class resents the poor and votes Republican. Mr. Kristof, on behalf of Democrats, champions the working class while consistently alienating them.
11
It is meaningful that you include the extreme wealth tied up in non-profits. Much of that money is controlled by its donors despite the fact that it has resulted in the reduction of their income taxes. And very little of the donated funds are being used for philanthropic purposes. They are managed for the benefit of the "philanthropists" in perpetuity.
7
Every non-profit needs to pay taxes. We have been scammed long enough. From the super rich churches on down — everyone needs to pay.
This is not a new story, about the large number of young men declining to enroll in a four year college after graduation from high school. Go look up the two articles that the Atlantic published in 2017 on the disappearance of young men from college campuses.
As I can best remember, for over a decade ten to eleven percent less men than women have enrolled in a four year college, of both the black and white races. Even in college, only about sixty percent of men compared to women got that degree.
If it takes Trump to publicize this, fine. The fact is that there was no lobby and no lobbyist money to mobilize government and social agencies to recognize and address the problem.
Not is it very hard on the lives of those without the degree, but a lot of uneducated, underemployed, angry and envious young men is a very bad demographic profile for a democracy. Who do you think makes up all these "hate" groups that are so condemned?
5
It needs to be emphasized by as many writers and broadcasters as possible that if trump gets a second term, he will devastate, if not entirely remove, Social Security, Medicare and SS Disability assistance. He is already on record as saying that accomplishing this would be a second term project. In my opinion, this is not being reported widely enough. People hear the lies such as those he told in his SOTU address (“I will always protect pre-existing conditions.”). HE WILL NOT. All of us who have paid/are paying into those funds with the expectation of being able to avail ourselves of the very modest benefits from these programs may be left with nothing if he has his way. And the characterization of these must be changed. They are NOT “entitlements”. They are Earned Benefits that we all pay for over the years. We must stop allowing the Republicans to define the terminology. And we must publicize their intentions by any means possible.
44
@Lena
Democrats defunded Medicare to the tune of $0.8 trillion. Obama advocated in favor of changing the inflation adjustment for Social Security from the current index to another index that would result in lower COLA adjustment. Obamacare stripped Medicaid funding from hospitals serving a high proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries and also stripped funding for SCHIP in favor of funding for able bodied childless adults. Defund the most vulnerable to give freebies to the healthy.
You would be hard pressed to find a single instance where Republicans have reduced Social Security and Medicare, but are comfortable assuming they will.
The leftist media would be happy to report widely that Republicans are evil. They do it every day. The reason they are not reporting your "fact" from the rooftops is because everyone knows it's a lie. They don't object to reporting lies, but this particular one is too easily disputed.
@Lena
You know of you vote for honest people for congress and who are willing to do their jobs, all of this goes away. The clowns who reside in Congress now are spineless puppets. The president is the check and balance on Congress, not the one making the laws for Congress to rubber stamp.
Great article, but guess what the economy is not that great. It seems little noticed and the media did not give it big play was that from March 2018 to March 2019 the period of the wonderful tax cuts that the jobs report has been amended to the fact that 514,000 less jobs were created than reported. It averages out to 40,000 a month and it is believed that when the period of March 2019 - March 2020 is reported there will be as big or more than likely a larger drop which means since job growth has not been that fantastic this year some months will drop below 100,000. Also never discussed is what kind of jobs and the pay. Also it seems as one economist reported and no one wants to in the main stream media including tv discuss is with the Baby Boomer like me retiring at close to 200,000 a month then how many jobs are really being created. It is a rigged fake game. Less coal miners, less manufacturing, less in the service industry as any economist knows and I know someone who is a Hollywood accountant they ask on any new project when all is said and done do you want it to look like the picture made a profit or lost. Sadly many of the people you discuss are also big Trump fans. Gee, what did he and Mitch do about the coal miners who were blocking the tracks in July who had not been paid to prevent coal from leaving.Last heard ZERO. Rand Paul did nothing, but he is fighting raising benefits for men sprayed in Vietnam vets with Agent Orange. What is needed is a revolt. Jim Trautman
12
Nicholas Kristof, a question I would like to see answered or at least considered.
First a preface: Imagine a USA where the Census Bureau saw each of us, even me, entirely in terms of SES data - economy, social situation, education level, zip code, country of birth (or of parental birth), and with complete data on lifetime medical records.
That is how I am seen in Sweden and I have OnLine access in detail to my medical history, a history that researchers can access anononymously. I am not seen as belonging to any "race" other than homo sapiens. In America, against my will, I am seen as color = white (my birth certificate early 1930s).
After the election examine the distribution of Trump voters using the SES data and health data.
Would we discover that from national perspective, a far greater percentage of not-so-well-off people voted for Trump than voted for the as yet unknown Democrat?
I am betting that those who would benefit most from universal health care, parental subsidies and even guaranteed income will actually be those who support Trump.
The American paradox in action, if my speculation is correct.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
4
@Larry Lundgren
Only someone like you would believe that the average and median Republican is poorer and less educated than the average and median Democrat, despite all the evidence to the contrary.
There is a very tiny minority of the 0.1% in wealth and people in academia with PhDs who own the Democrat narrative. If you eliminate the academic and wealth 0.1%, as education level increases, the tendency to vote Republican increases. As income increases, the tendency to vote Republican increases.
So Democrats get a majority of the lowest 10% of income voters and the majority of those who lack a high school diploma. Republicans get a majority of the voters with a college degree.
Even in the anomalous 2016 election, when Trump got a majority of the working class folks with a high school diploma as their highest level of academic achievement, it was the high school graduates who had incomes of $70,000, not minimum wage workers.
As you say, they don't collect race data in Sweden, because the population is ten million and they are racially homogeneous.
That would be like taking the population of North Carolina, replacing the 70% white population with exclusively Scandinavians, along with the other 30% non whites with Scandinavians.
1
@ebmem Please explain the "someone like you" part of your comment.
As for Sweden, the population is far from homogeneous. Ethnic Swedes make up 76% of the population, with about 20% of non-whites. That is not much more homogeneous than in the United States, which has a 72% white population.
3
@ebmem I can assure you that in westchester county New York the average democrat is wealthier and better educated than the average republican.
The split in incomes is a natural effect of the market. The economy as it works now does not need all the less educated workers that are available, and solves this problem by developing ways to reduce their number. The mechanisms by which this reduction is brought about are complex, but we know it is happening.
To reduce it, we will have to fight the market as well as what we normally do -- supplement and bribe it. People and businesses that make their money by increasing income differences must be discouraged.
2
I'm on a small pension and social security. My mortgage increased, my taxes increased; I'm buying cheaper foods, no clothing, not going out. And I am further behind. I detest Trump and his cabinet who decrease taxes on the wealthy. But this always happens and people seem to be none the wiser. It always takes a Democrat to clean up the mess. Obama had to clean up after Bush. I will never understand it.
21
US life expectancy actually increased in 2018, drug deaths were down, infant mortality dropped several points, and obviously the long term trend has been upward, and rather dramatically, but we're still lagging behind our peers in the developed world despite far outspending them on health care. Access to health care is slightly better than it was, say, thirty years ago, homicide rates and motor vehicle deaths are way lower, many fewer people smoke, but suicides, drug overdoses, and morbid obesity are the new killers. In terms of the country being bifurcated with respect to the impact of these problems according to economic means, so it has always been. It might be useful though if we stopped with the false dichotomies of the one percent vs. the ninety-nine and instead sought to help out the real left-behinds, who are a much smaller number, something between five and ten percent. Framing the matter not in terms of incipient class warfare but rather in terms of targeted relief for those who are suffering.
4
Please. I'm so tired of MOPE - management of perception economics where 'All is Good!' is repeated over and over in an attempt to convince people that what they're seeing is wrong.
Real unemployment has been over 20% since 2009.
We're seeing continued layoffs among our peers - over 45 in NY burbs. People are seeing whole industries die and others cutting back. Banking an finance are the current places not to be - JP Morgan is shipping whole departments to India. Morgan Stanley is laying people off. We've know people out of work for years - draining their 401K's instead of adding to them in what should have been peak earning years. Those that manage to find another job after a few years are lucky to make half of what they used to. Retail is disappearing but landlords are killing small businesses hoping to rent to chains that are actually closing stores.
Recent college grads are expected to work 60-80hours a week and are paid less than they would have been paid 40 years ago.
27
I agree and VISA students who’ve graduated are snapped up, for approximately half the salary
an American graduate used to earn.
As an aside and O/T, Senate Majority leader Mitch is the “man behind the curtain” who is
pulling all the strings.
What he says——goes.
He is the REAL Power, who appears meek and mild, but is as poisonous as a rattlesnake.
I’m not sure why there is not much reporting about his sneaky, slithering ways while speaking w/a forked tongue.
Only the rich seem to get respect. Even when they have done nothing to earn their money which is mostly inherited or a lucky accident. Remember a lot of people are drowning in a river which is only an average of 6 inches deep. Economic bragging goeth before the fall...
8
Income gains for the bottom 90% have been anemic. But that's not the most important reason for economic misery. The problem is the price we PAY for
housing
health insurance, medication, and deductibles
child care
education/student loan payments
elder care
While incomes have stagnated over the last 50 years, costs for all the above have skyrocketed;
example: health care cost per capita
2019: $11,559
1970: $355
That would be roughly 32X. Needless to say, median income is not 32X what it was in 1970. Put another way, even a fight for $25 won't get the job done. And that's just health care; all of the other areas have experienced similar increases. Thus--paycheck-to-paycheck, no savings, an emergency away from who-knows-what.
One thing is certain, the "free market" will not provide an answer. Only government policy--such as those adopted generations ago by other wealthy countries--can do the job. LBJ was the last link to FDR's New Deal. King had turned to the poor people's march. He was shot. RFK picked up the torch. He was shot. Next came Nixon and the Southern Strategy, then Reagan, Gingrich, Bush, Ryan-McConnell, and now...? The trajectory has been away from the EU model for 50 years, the end of the one-person family income--50 years, the explosion of health and education costs--50 years, income stagnation, and tax cuts for the wealthiest--50 years. Coincidence?
Are we ready for "socialism"? The answer, overall, appears to be no. Then let us celebrate dystopia!
29
It’s interesting that Chronic pain is mentioned as a parameter indicative of a deteriorating socio-economic status. It is well established in Medicine that chronic pain , with no discernible organic cause , is a sign of depression, poor sleep pattern, fibromyalgia , hypochondriac maladies, poor self image, BDD and so on.
13
@Hobo
Poor people cannot afford the medications, treatments, and surgeries that can manage symptoms at the very least and often can fix what is wrong. And no, Obamacare did not fix this for millions of people.
2
Yang or Bloomberg could pay Trump voters $100 each to vote for them. Not sure how you could prove they actually voted for them though.
2
@Missy
You could look right at their absentee ballot and verify it.
We just elected a U.S. Senator in Arizona that way.
There is despair throughout this country. Your columns help to increase awareness but the Democratic party is not doing anywhere near enough to address these issues. Why do we spend so much time debating polls results and not enough debating social distress. These candidate need to do a better job and so do the main street media. I am tired of cheap easy news and talking heads on TV discussing the candidates. I want so much more than what I am seeing. Thank you sir for caring.
23
Why do you think Sanders is running again? And why do you think we who understand this are spending our valuable time out canvassing door to door in single-digit weather trying to spread the hope that we can make this country work for everyone, not just the wealthy? Join us.
2
The important point here in reviewing the situation from your last column is that US Bank only corrected the situation when it ended up in the New York Times and people started expressing their outrage. All of a sudden they were eager to "do the right thing". How many other types of situations just like this do not come to the attention of someone like Mr. Kristof who can expose these titans of American businesses for what they often are - interested only in profits, their own compensation and keeping their shareholders happy. Think of Wells Fargo who has repeatedly scammed and cheated customers. No one went at the Corporate level to jail, and the low level employees who were pushed to sell products and essentially defraud customers did it because they were desperate to keep their jobs. They were fired or laid off as a result of the scandal. The head of Wells Fargo walked away with his "golden parachute". This is the divide that should be emphasized. The people making 25-40K a year are barely getting by. They often have minimal health care, with deductibles and co-pays that make the term "insurance" a joke. They are treated like disposable non-entities as US Bank showed us. Most people are hard working. They do not necessarily envy the billionaires - they just want fair pay, reasonable benefits, and not worrying that a health emergency will send them into bankruptcy.
15
Nick,
Could you tell us where you found the data that nearly 50% of the over 25s are not working? Big debate among my friends.
2
No one I know over 50 who lost high-powered jobs in 2008 has been able to find another job that allowed them to keep their house and are now working three part-time jobs in Trader Joe’s or some such physical labor jobs, and living in elderly parents’ unheated attics. None of these people are in any statistics. This happened under Obama and I know some of them voted for Trump because even though they went to Ivy League schools and have advanced degrees, the media, including the NYT and the DNC, (and Warren, by not having the courage to endorse the policies she now says she supports), basically gave them the finger by eviscerating the candidate who knows how to fight toxic capitalism, Bernie.
3
reading articles like this makes me wonder how anyone can't look to universal programs to help these widespread problems. universal health care and education, strengthening unions and wages, ensuring affordable housing and childcare, in addition to strong social safety net programs could go a long way in making all people less vulnerable. the way forward involves looking back - to New Deal type investments in our universal programs! Which is precisely what Bernie Sanders proposes.
5
"...and it’s true that the economy is strong..."
Only part right Nicholas, as you sort of touch on further in the column. We have the "Wall St. Economy" as I would call it, that is reported upon widely by the media, and hailed by the Establishment as booming. But then we have what I would call the "Real Economy", the one that is experienced by the majority of Americans, the middle and working class.
In the "Real Economy", measures like unemployment are almost meaningless, much as they would've been had they been used to measure the pre-Civil War economy in the South. The "unemployment" was almost zero then, but I wouldn't say the "workers" (slaves) were happy. And saying that wages have risen in the past three years ignores how they were stagnant or even went down for decades before. And how much of these "gains" are due to government -mandated increases in the minimum wage? Capitalism sure can't take credit for that!
In fact, the "Wall St. Economy" is so disconnected from the "Real Economy" that the experts can't grasp why major portions of America have still not experienced any recovery from the Great Recession. Their confirmation bias that is based upon the "Wall St. Economy" continues to blind them to reality.
This is why Bernie Sanders is defying all the pundits, much as Trump did in 2016. The difference is that Sanders will actually try to deliver on his promises to the 99%, whereas Trump just milked them for his own profit.
11
@Kingfish52
"...Trump just milked them..."
Nope.
Trump has created more full-time jobs in three years, 7.4 million than Obama created in 8 years, 7.1 million.
These are the jobs that count, full-time jobs.
According to a recent Gallup poll 80 percent of those earning under $40k, 92 percent of those earning $40-100k and 96 percent of those earning over $100k are satisfied with their personal life. These satisfaction levels, especially for those earning under 40k are baffling to me, and do not foot with what you are describing here.
1
@Shyamela
Think about it. 1.4 billion people live in mult-dimensional poverty. No running water, no electricity, eating rats to survive. Perpetual intestinal disease from drinking and eating diseased water and food.
Life is good in the U.S.
For the past 8 months I have been supporting a presidential campaign that addresses these issues. The media and DNC have either ignored or actually smeared this candidate. Tulsi Gabbard would bring integrity to the White House and is our best chance to begin healing the deep divisions in our country. She and her message deserve more attention.
3
Wealth disparities in our country are accelerating; even were that trend to cease, our social cohesion would be in dire peril. Older, educated, well-connected white males cotinue to rule the economy and demonstrate little inclination to be better at sharing.
The scale of wealth redistribution necessary to halt the acceleration of inequality, let alone turn it around is in the middle single-digit trillions. Whatever political mechanisms required to do that, scary as they are, will look like a day at the beach if we must wait through the second term of Trump.
3
@JS
Nope.
You assume that inequality has any meaning. It doesn't.
What has meaning is outcomes for the poor.
Over the last three years, over 5 million people have been rescued from poverty.
Even for the people who chose to remain in poverty, life is good. Welfare benefits in the U.S. exceed those of any other nation in the world.
3
@John Huppenthal That is simply not true. France has much better unemployment programs.
Yes, indeed we do have a bifurcated economy. But who is getting this? Who is giving voice to this hopelessness, where every day of someone's life is a bad day of pain and despair? Meanwhile, this profound inequity widens.
Interestingly, your colleague David Cay Johnston suggested in 2015 that "[h]opefully, we will be so disturbed that we will choose to change, electing politicians who will jettison our failed policies for the rich at the expense of everyone else so that, among other benefits, far fewer of us die prematurely because life is too miserable to carry on."
Five years later, are we still only aspiring to that noble effort. Ironically, those two US Bank employees were practicing on a micro level the re-distribution of wealth that has to occur (sorry folks).
Thank you for giving voice to the devastation of income inequality, its underpinnings and effects. Please continue this unfinished dialogue.
2
The federal government cannot directly address or be held responsible for happiness levels. Nor can it directly control employment levels, though it can certainly affect wages by raising the minimum wage.
The easiest and probably best way for the federal government to better the lot of those who are in despair is by (re)instating steeply graduated income taxes and by income/wealth redistribution. A wealth tax is a good idea too if it can bring practical results, which is debatable.
Because of climate change, we need to set aside economic "growth," and throw ourselves full-tilt into income redistribution. If some people call that socialism, too bad.
4
@Just Ben
Government has provided jobs for many unemployed workers. The TVA employed people; FDR's conservation projects provided jobs; road work still provides jobs. Congress refused to fund infrastructure spending which would provide jobs. Government can do for many what individuals cannot do alone. We are a rich country; we can create jobs where work needs to be done. Handing money to States did not create jobs; States used the money to pay down debt. The WPA and the CCC created jobs and permanent structures. I'm not interested in how much money McConnell and his wife can grab for themselves and their donors. A decent job and income does create happiness; try living poor and get back to us.
11
@Linda Miilu Excellent points. I agree. Let's create those jobs by using funds raised by increasing taxes on those who have more than they know what to do with--not by borrowing the money.
4
@Just Ben
Agree. I don't know much about tax policies; however, it seems that families like the Waltons could pay more. Warren Buffet addressed Congress on taxes; he told members they should increase his taxes; he would gladly pay higher taxes. Congress peeps didn't respond, no doubt due to the expected reaction from their biggest donors.
4
Wait... did you say 50% of Americans over the age of 25 and with just a high school degree are out of the work force?
That's insane. I knew things were hard for them but I was thinking like 20% unemployment not 50%.
4
And then there is a group of people that don't want to be helped except in the way they want to be helped. People don't want to feel like they're on welfare, etc. (even though a lot of what we do in the US and the world is welfare of a sort - jobs that don't need done are being done and paid). People want THEIR life acknowledged and don't seem to think OTHERS are feeling the same way. So individualism and capitalism taken to extremes are taking their toll.
And so the answer to the whole capitalism/socialism and dicatorship/democracy becomes clear (especially using parts of Europe as an example). it is some sort of a fine equilibrium as nature does competition/cooperation and top down/bottom up. The weighting is on the latter in nature.
1
"during the Great Depression, life expectancy rose strongly, while in three of the last four years it fell because of deaths of despair."
"almost half of Americans aged 25 and over with only a high school diploma are no longer in the labor force"
If the Reagan years were "sleepwalking through history," what do we have now? A change is gonna come.
3
@MKR
""almost half of Americans aged 25 and over with only a high school diploma are no longer in the labor force"
Our stable genius of a president was the only economist to recognize that you could grow indefinitely at 3% or higher because you can suck that half of the population back into workforce and back into jobs.
Once in a while I read a story from the other side. I think myself as above sides but I'm definitely on the side of reality and truth, both of which I acknowledge are relative. I follow the evidence as I perceive it to see where it leads me. As a scientist and as a human who has looked extensively outward and inward, I've seen how malleable what we call reality, as well as our perceptions of it, can be.
That said, what I see from the other side is pure fiction. I don't get it. I am trying to give the benefit of the doubt but I am unable to rationalise it. It's like half the country has gone crazy. They claim they think the same about us, but do they really, sincerely? Are they in it just for the power? Is it a mix of these two?
4
Continued: Facts are made up out of thin air. It's all about the power of conviction, which is useless without real power. And the people so enthralled with this fiction. I always thought Americans were a sensible sort of people even if they were crazy but now something has gone horribly wrong.
I hope I am not saying this just because the "side" I'm partial to is not in power but it's hard to imagine me being wrong. I guess this is what gaslighting is about. But are Trump followers victims or willing gaslighters out for power? This weird coalition Trump has pulled together is crazy. It's like all the wingnuts are residing there generating conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory and acting as though they were facts.
It may be cynical to regard the economic depression and despair of millions of my countrymen as an opportunity for the eventual Democratic candidate, but that's politics.
I guarantee that somewhere inside the Democratic Party operation is an office that does nothing except keep track of every unfulfilled promise made by Trump in his 2016 campaign. They will all come back to haunt him.
This election is a wonderful opportunity for the Democratic Party to go back to its FDR roots. It was under his influence, and that of Truman and LBJ, that the Democratic Party was at its zenith. It represented working people and labor unions and had a seeming lock on the House of Representatives. Now if we could only fire everyone at the DNC and replace them with people who aren't moderate Republicans at heart.
16
I wonder if you can help me understand something. News reports exclaim over the low unemployment and higher earnings in the US currently. However, what I see in my rural community is that people are working two or more jobs (which would contribute to the low unemployment figures, right?) and are therefore bringing home a bit more but from 60 hour work weeks. Could this be why so many are in pain? The same people working two or more jobs to bring in what one job used to earn? Also, doesn't the end of the baby boom mean less workers in general so therefore less people for the same number of jobs which would also contribute to low unemployment? If these are true, why isn't it discussed? What I see are more people working more than one job and still living in debt and pain.
85
Are you an adult? The ACA offers dental insurance, but it is minimal given annual maximum benefits. Need hearing aids? Not covered. Vision? Not covered.
We live in a very Darwinian society.
Something needs to be said. Trump and his enablers attack Obamacare because it mostly funds Medicaid expansion, for the benefit of the poor. Most poor people don't vote. And only about 2-3% of the overall population is directly covered by the ACA.
Meanwhile, Warren raises her hand to take away private (including employer-based) insurance. Such insurance covers around 180 million Americans (as noted by Trump in his State of the Union address). That could be perceived as far worse than anything Trump is doing with the ACA. Maybe that's part of the reason Warren didn't do so well in Iowa?
Democrats need to get it together.
Maybe Bloomberg can save the day. Maybe. Maybe Democrats will pour most of their money into Senate races they can win, as Democratic control of the Senate will be a crucial failsafe for our democracy should Trump win re-election. Maybe that will happen.
Maybe.
Let's keep hoping.
4
Last election, Warren didn’t have the courage to raise her hand to support the policies she’s running on this time. Why? How much suffering has been created over the Trump years, which could have been prevented...?
1
I was wondering how many comments were going to say something along the line of "well, they voted for him". True. But a drowning man will grab at anything he thinks will keep him afloat. Unfortunately, with trump, he grabbed a rock.
27
"This all sounds promising, but indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices."
If only you had the time, Mr. Kristof, to personally shame, then engage with the CEOs of all the U.S. companies who have treated their employees so atrociously.
"Promising" is probably overly optimistic. One day (I know) it would be nice to think CEOs value customers over shareholders. They could at least try to pretend.
7
Americans are asking themselves why the American Dream has eluded them, or is eluding their kids. There are 2 narratives that deem to have the "legs" to motivate large numbers of voters today:
Trump blames immigrants, government, and the "elite" professionals that "look down" on the working class.
Democratic populists like Sanders and Warren correctly point to the ultra rich--the "donor class" or the "billionaires"-- who are reaping all of the gains of technology for the past several decades. They're running by pointing out the reality that Kristof is writing about, and proposing bold solutions to address this worsening reality.
A Democratic nominee who doesn't have a compelling explanation and solutions for the near extinction of the middle class won't win. The failure of candidates Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Michael Dukakis, & Al Gore is, in large part, due to this. They ignored what Kristof is saying, and voters turned to the GOP for explanations.
Let's not make this mistake in 2020.
36
@Peck And the middle class won't expand without the permission of the rich. It's simple as that: the rich have gotten what they wanted and they're squeezing as much as possible for more. And it's a continuum. Even someone nominally in the 1% or 5% or perhaps even 10% is trying to get ahead and they do it in part by stepping on the backs of other people. They're part of the squeeze of the remaining 99% or 95% or 90%. That's capitalism for you.
Some people are conscientious in how they become richer and try to bring others along but that's a small minority IMO. Most people are trying to get the MOST from others by doing/giving them the LEAST. This greed infects us all but America is built on this.
There's also an America that is more idealistic, utopian in thinking, radical, ... and I'm part of that culture and I love it. I wish the world were all like this but I don't see how it can be done except by example. The materialism we have is going to be the end of us.
11
The last time we had such profound inequity, the stock market crashed and millions of Americans suffered immensely until they had finally been beaten down enough to demand change, and elected FDR - again and again and again. This is the thing: it takes a great deal of suffering for Americans to let go of their fear of government and their love for entrepreneurs, but when they finally do get it, and see the enormous good that government has the capacity to bring about, they become supporters.
Of course there will always be debates about whether it was FDR's New Deal or WW2 that finally brought prosperity back to this nation, but the fact remains that both were gigantic spending programs by the federal government. It's also true that for nearly a half century after WW2, unions gained enormous strength and the American middle class became the most prosperous on earth. And that prosperity extrapolated to the entire society. We didn't need billionaires at that time; everyone who wanted to could become rich enough, and the average guy could still have a great life.
I pray it doesn't take another Great Depression or apocalyptic war to restore us to a more equitable society. In reality all it takes is for all of us to understand two simple facts: first, government is not our enemy, and second, unregulated capitalism is the most dangerous force on the planet.
If we would simply accept those two facts, I think we would all be able to develop a much healthier society.
105
@TLMischler
"Roosevelt's New Deal"
Causes of the Great Depression:
1. October 23,1929: A large block of legislators switch sides and Hoover agrees to support the Smoot Hawley 60% sales tax on imports: the stock market tanks 36% in 5 days.
The economic decline into the Great Depression begins that month
2. Hoover signs the Smoot Hawley tariff, a 60% sales tax, into law in May of 1930.
3. Hoover increases personal income taxes from 25% to 63% in 1931.
4. Hoover's retroactive 1931 tax increase pulls liquidity out of banks, causing a bank panic. The stock market completes its total fall of 90%.
5. Hoover begins the deportation of 4% of the workforce and Roosevelt continues it, pulling 1.8 million Hispanics out of the workforce and the economy.
6. Roosevelt increases personal income taxes from 63% to 76% making the Great Depression the Great Depression.
7.Roosevelt devalues the dollar in 1933 from $21.67 per ounce to $35 per ounce, a 60% tax on savings and incomes.
8. Roosevelt passes the National Recovery Act, a bureaucratic nightmare of regulation causing a quarter of the downturn.
9. The most intense drought in the last 100 years hit the Great Depression years, with 1936 suffering the lowest rainfall of the last 100 years and 1934 suffering the highest temperatures in the last 100 years.
1
@John Huppenthal
You forgot FDR also created the TVA; he also created the CCC. His New Deal would have taken longer without WWII; it was working. You can make a shopping list of what FDR didn't do; history considers him to be a great President. He kept England alive with Lend Lease; I worked for a merchant mariner who served on one of the ships carrying food and materiel to England. His ship was torpedoed; he joined another ship. FDR was very ill before the war ended; he misjudged Stalin due to his holding the Eastern Front. Churchill tried to warn him about Stalin and Eastern Europe. He died before we won the war against the axis. Nothing in your post diminishes a great man. FDR did not create the Great Depression. He also apologized for the treatment of Japanese Americans; he offered reparations which they refused. No great leaders are without flaws; they are human. Please provide a list of Trump's accomplishments.
23
It is easy to lie with statistics, and Trump's handlers are very good at it. Here are three issues papers such as the NYT should hammer home every day:
1) The only legitimate way to compare (un)employment in the US to the rest of the developed world is to use the U6 "real" unemployment rate, which aligns best with the definition of unemployment elsewhere. It stands at 6.9%
2) The labor force participation rate of prime-aged adults (25-54) in the US is lower in than in other developed countries such as France, Germany or Japan, which is why there is more room for job creation.
https://data.oecd.org/emp/labour-force-participation-rate.htm
3) *Personal* median wage in the US is lower than in the rest of the advanced world, i.e. most American *individual* workers make less than workers in France or Germany - and get less for their taxes in terms of healthcare and education.
The reason that *household* incomes in the US are higher is that few American families can live on one salary alone. So when pundits and politicians are bragging that American household income is so high remind them of this figure:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MEPAINUSA672N
Yes, that's right: Half of American workers make $33k or less a year - which is why there is so much room for growth and improvement.
America is a good place to live and work, if you have a college degree. But only 33.4% of Americans do, and for the bottom two thirds this means that their days are a long slog - and really bad.
61
@EBurgett
"the only way to compare is the U6 unemployment rate..."
Ok, let's compare . As you say, it is currently 6.9%. But, you don't do the comparison. It was 9.2% when Trump took office. That 2.3% improvement is 5.7 million workers.
Median personal income in the U.S. is at an all-time record, $34,000 per year. Your beloved high tax Europe? $19,363 Not even in the same universe.
1
@EBurgett During the Obama years, Republicans never failed to point out that real unemployment was higher than the standard "unemployment rate" -- that labor participation rate was falling. They seem to have forgotten that since 1/20/17.
9
It’s a common misconception of many if not most Democrats that everyone must go to college to succeed or be happy. If this thinking continues they will lose again because the blue collar trades will feel (correctly) that they are being ignored.
1
"Put aside the Trumpian hyperbole, and it’s true that the economy is strong — and that this is critical to Trump’s chances for re-election."
As the rest of the column discusses, the economy is not strong for tens of millions of Americans. And it isn't just the working class. The middle class is struggling with a constantly increasing cost of living.
Even though wages are rising now, costs are rising even more. Housing costs are increasing, with more families spending half their income, or more, on a place to live. Child care costs continue rising. College educations are plunging millions of Americans into debt every year. And health care premiums, copays and deductibles are also increasing rapidly, meaning that even those who have health insurance are struggling, or going without needed care. This is what is keeping Americans up at night: How are we going to survive?
25
People love statistics. Even those who can't afford to invest will tell you how high the stock market is. But no president has done much for those with limited skills, yet people wonder why someone who's had a low skill job for decades, responds to getting fired by going postal.
4
Your column buys into a fantasy, that a quick cure exists for problems that developed over 30 years.
Trump is curing these problems faster than anybody dreamed possible just three years ago.
Opioid drug abuse acceleration, escalating at exponential rates, slammed to a complete halt, no longer expanding.
Life expectancy, shrinking for three years in a row, began expanding again.
Poverty? Down over 5 million under Trump. Continue that trend for another 5 years? Will be down another 8 million, well on its way to being wiped out.
Every Democrat running for office intends to stop these horrifying trends and get back to a mediocre economy which will endanger Social Security and Medicare.
5
Dear NM,
I share thoughts of others here that send you the hope
that there will some treatment(s) that could be offered to
you to treat or slow down the effects of your auto-immune disease. There are so many debilitating illnesses - many rare and many more common like Parkinson Disease and Multiple Sclerosis - that it is likely that many reader of this column know someone with a chronic disease, unable to work and reliant on Social Security Disability payments or Medicaid. None of there programs will begin to make up for your losses in health, well being, work success or financial success - but so many must rely on them for assistance.
Mr. Kristof has pointed out here and in past that this cruel administration has tried to take away health insurance from millions of Americans and they have done this already.
Under this administration there is a new rule to review millions of people who already receive Social Security Disability payments to see who can be terminated to SAVE MONEY (so more benefits can be given to corporations and
the wealthy !) SSDI is not a free handout and there are strict processes in place to determine who is eligible.
Universal Health Care must be law of the land.
There are ways to implement this goal beyond scope of this note.
We must vote for a compassionate government which will protect SS, Medicare, Snap, and other programs to help
vulnerable people.
VOTE BLUE !
21
@joyce
The affordable care act increased the cost of health care by $1 trillion per year and ended with three consecutive years of reduced life expectancy.
1
@John Huppenthal that is not how life expectancy is calculated. It is not the amount of money spent but preventing disease and decreasing its complications that increases life expectancy.
So the improvement in life expectancy could be the result of more people getting preventative healthcare.
4
There are so many symptoms of our weakening society That Trump and the GOP and Trump would have us ignore because it does not fit their reelection prospects. But ignoring the state of our health care system, income inequality, racism, misogyny, our decaying infrastructure, climate change which includes the wholesale destruction of species, among so many issues does not make them go away, but only makes things worse. There are many worthy people doing worthy things in this country and around the world. But it is all haphazard and counter productive when our very government opposes these great intentions.
10
@just Robert
"...income inequality..."
For three consecutive years, the bottom quintile has received the largest pay increase of any quintile.
Where is the data on income inequality?
Has to be improving as never before.
@John Huppenthal
Try living on pre-tax $15.00/hr. on your own; no family support.
1
"..indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustice" - maybe not fully, but they certainly help, Nicholas. Right now we have only two means of improving our economic status quo: the first being exactly what is happening right now, this instant. We are reading from a trusted news' medium which is in turn educating and informing us about our dismal, but all too real, state of affairs. The second is a group of political candidates trying to fight for us, for necessary changes. While reading this essay, I could not help but think that the very people suffering the most are the same individuals who voted for and will vote again for a man not worthy of occupying the highest office in the land, indeed, not worthy of even living in a decent and civil society. Those same people in Kentucky vote for Mr. McConnell who is of the same ilk as their "president." Every little bit helps to aid that person and another and another not only get her or his job back but also to become gainfully employed. There is too much despair in this nation by those who truly suffer. But for those of us who have it good, or rather good, there is no room, no reason for us to despair. We have to reach out and help whether in our community or through our local, state, and federal elections.
10
Bigger issues than education and training contribute to the “two Americas” problem. As a person with multiple degrees whose last job was eliminated but who cannot find another one (age discrimination may be illegal but it’s impossible to prosecute or prove), and is too young for Medicare, I am painfully aware of the systemic barriers that group us into “haves” and “have nots”. I know the economy is doing well in spite of Trump, rather than because of him (my tax burden actually INCREASED after his tax “cuts”), but the deceptively strong economy isn’t helping me at all. And I am not fooled by Trump’s assertions to the contrary. This is not the country I wanted to retire in, but I guess I’m stuck with it. It will take us decades to dig ourselves out of the hole a Trump is digging. I hope I live long enough to see it.
25
You are right—age discrimination is a serious problem but no one is talking about it.
2
How much is the rise of suicide and despair related to the way that culture and media have disparaged and denigrated religion and spirituality. The most spirituality many people encounter in a positive way these days is by meeting vegans.
@Paul
Nonsense. Despair and finally suicide result from hopelessness, lack of a job or family, or both. There are pictures of long lines for low pay jobs; there are pictures of long lines of people waiting to get one meal. We have enough safety nets to prevent starvation. We do not have enough low skill jobs; we have even outsourced high skill jobs to countries where wages are lower, with no benefits attached. Corporate interests have taken over much of the Federal government; those interests and needs of ordinary working people are not the same. We had FDR, Truman, Eisenhower et al. Now we have Trump and his mediocre Administration who seem to believe ordinary people are asking for too much. McConnell's tax cuts will impact the future of those who come after us.
@Paul So everyone who's out of work and/or ill should just pray--instead of voting for better employment and medical care?
These people do not vote. Any questions?
Second, the loss of the American middle was due to China. Couple hundred million new, low wage people on the labor market, yeah. But, those of us who deal in China know that the wages have gone up there ... you'd expect then to see wages slowly rising back up in the USA. And you'd be right. Real wages stalled and sank starting about 1973 and they've been making a comeback since Bush Jr. Why is there so much despair and anger then? Because politics lags economics. We need to hold on long enough for the rising tide to perculate through.
@BarryG : You can look to October 1973 as the beginning of the end for the Post War boom years.
There are a lot of reasons for it but the driving force was the loss of manufacturing jobs that provided a good wag to semi-skilled labor.
If you pointed this out in the 1980s you were deemed a heartless Republican who wanted to kill of the "working class that built this country". Today, this is a progressive fact of life in our marvelous global economy.
What effect from Trump's tariffs? I recently learned that tariffs have affected American manufacturing adversely, the sector Trump promised to revive. Who has been affected? The geographic effects are uneven over the country. The most profound adverse effects have occurred in red states, especially in the South. Trump continues to enjoy strong support there. Are workers forgotten? Job loss hasn't been accompanied often enough by opportunity for learning new skills. Many of those workers choose to stay in the same states rather than move on; they vote the same way and once out of work, remain so.
4
@blgreenie : The coming presidential campaign will put Trump's promises of a resurgent US-based manufacturing sector with blue collar jobs in the spotlight.
His opponents will say he's failed. What will they offer in place of those promises? Bus fare to another state?
It will be interesting and fun to watch.
@Jp
Resurgent manufacturing is driven by automation and engineers. We import inferior steel from China. We can still make high grade steel if we renovate steel factories. The rush to automation has not been accompanied by job retraining or education for the children of factory workers. Clinton addressed this; Trump does not talk about it. Trump has never worked; he went through an inherited fortune. Professional managers now manage his money. Trump uses AF One as a taxi service to Mar-a-Lago where he entertains an undisclosed list of people who serve his interests. It was not fun to watch Trump play golf within sight of a memorial service for young victims of a school shooting.
@blgreenie
"...job loss..."
Nope.
In the last three years, Trump has created 7.4 million full-time jobs, more than Obama created in all 8 years, 7.1 million full-time jobs.
It seems to me that the only way for these despairing people to receive excellent care to deal with these issues is to submit and expose themselves on a television show.
4
"Output is surging" in the American economy? That doesn't seem to explain why GM and Ford have shut plants and quit building a lot of car models, Boeing has forgotten how to make airplanes, and shopping malls are closing all over the country.
56
@Bearded One
"Output is surging..."
Increased GDP in the last three years? $1,624 billion, $1.6 trillion. Your beloved high tax Europe? Less than $400 billion for their 540 million people.
Our economy didn't get above a total Gdp of $1.6 trillion for over 150 years. Trump did that much in 3 years.
@John Huppenthal
Trump's benefitting from being at the end of a 150-year historical trend and you wish to give him credit? Please, give it a rest.
3
@Bearded One :"That doesn't seem to explain why GM and Ford have shut plants and quit building a lot of car models, "
GM and Ford will say they are merely preparing for the future (EVs and autonomous) however the truth is they can't compete in the passenger car sector while other OEMs seem to do so.
Oh well, maybe we'll all drive electrified Ford F-150s and Dodge Rams.
1
this article completes the view of Noam Chomsky that it is easy to win the country-sides if we get there and convince them that Trumpism is not in their favor. We need to conncect with middle America and physically send bodies to face their dark views and help them shield themeselves from dangerous propaganda. This is a prerequisite if we are to make headways in preventing suicide, alcoholism, drug use, guns, and let them understand that the government is social by nature not the enemy.
12
Sort of Freedom Riders?
The stock market is strong; the economy isn't. According to Gallup, only about 55% of Americans own stock, and much of that is tied up in mutual funds and retirement accounts. Wages have been stagnant for years, and Trump Inc. fights minimum wage rises, healthcare, and tax relief for the middle class.
Trump's success is making his base feeling like the victims of such policies. His talent is making them believe that someone else is to blame for them. His genius is making them believe he cares.
105
Wages are rising. Faster than inflation, and faster for low earners and minorities
Surely some of these marginalized Americans voted for Trump, but how many are so alienated from society that they don't even think to vote because they are marginalized?
14
Mr.Kristof,you are spot on when you speak of those who are not prosperous.Trump”s bragging in the SOTU speech about the best economy ever felt all wrong-as did almost every assertion.I checked Pew Research statistics and they pointed out that wage growth has lagged expectations.Today’s real average wage( that is the wage accounting for inflation)has about the same purchasing power that it did 40 years ago-in 1980! No wonder there is so much desperation -we are not living longer and better-many are living on wages of 40 years ago and see no way out of this low wage trap.Trump uses statistics cluelessly and carelessly-he has no concept of inflation and real purchasing power.Those with stagnant wages do and struggle each and every day.
26
"In effect, we have a bifurcated economy, marked by prosperity for millions of Americans and by a Social Great Depression for millions of others."
Thanks for that sentence, which sums up nicely the "Tale of Two Americas." For every happy, and wealthier American who loves the Trump Economy, I suspect there are two to three who are hurting. That statistic on how many reported bad mental health days (30 in a month, or 100%) was shocking.
If you don't have a job and/or have lost a child to drug overdose and/or are on the verge of divorce becase of economic problems or alchoholism, how it it possible to feel hope?
Thanks, Nicholas, for your continued reporting on how unequal our society has become, particularly regarding "the other half"--not just in terms of paychecks but in overall quality of life.
37
I don't think there's a good appreciation for how the people in the other American provided the "swing vote" for Trump's razor-thin victory in 2016. They don't care about things like the unemployment statistics—they have jobs, and many have more than one just to make the rent and buy groceries for the kids. But their lot has fallen over the years, and some of them voted for Trump in the mistaken belief that he would do things like "rebuild the steel mills in Pittsburgh" and hopefully improve things for them.
Needless to say that hasn't happened, and so it should be interesting to see what they do in November. Of course, that will partly depend on who the Democratic candidate is. Hillary was so obsessed with convincing us of how awful Trump was that she never really presented a vision for a better future. Bernie's a great guy, but these people are simply looking for family-sustaining jobs, not socialism. I think after the craziness of the past week many people are now realizing that Mike Bloomberg may be the one. It should be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.
6
I bought and devoured "Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope" by Kristof and WuDunn. I've already pre-ordered the new book by Case and Deaton cited in this column. THIS COUNTRY DOESN'T NEED YOU ONLY TO READ THIS COLUMN, OR ONLY TO BE SHOCKED THAT HALF OF ALL AMERICANS 25 AND OVER WITHOUT POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION ARE OUT OF THE LAB0R FORCE. YOUR COUNTRY NEEDS YOU TO READ THESE BOOKS and demand that any candidate for President or Congress have a plan to address these issues.
All kinds of people, beginning with Erik Erikson (yes, of "Childhood and Society") and Friedrich von Hayek (yes, THAT von Hayek) have declared that Fascists find their opportunity when the working/middle classes has been embittered and alienated. The party and candidates who will truly address the real issues of working-class and lower middle-class women and men of all races will RIGHTLY dominate the political life of this country for the next generation. Don't let the GOP (Guardians Of Privilege) exploit the issues without really addressing them—thus "Trumping" the democratic process itself.
51
@Gary Alan Chamberlain. Amen!
3
The other day I read of a billionaire who I had never heard of who tipped a waitress $5000; not because she had done an incredible job but to one-up a fellow billionaire who had tipped $2020 and issued a challenge.
We peons were presumably expected to read this and think how wonderful these Billionaires are, idly flaunting their wealth and chucking a few crumbs for us to scrabble in the dirt over.
America is fast developing into a sort of pre-revolution Louis XIV France, where the 99% of the wealth is held by just a very few. This has been going on for a long time but has accelerated under Trump. One hope that, like France back then, a revolution is coming.
182
@Smoog
"...pre revolution France..."
Nope.
The France prerevolutionary proletariat were starving to death.
Our poor have running water, toilets, showers, sinks, beds, refrigerators, stoves, flat screen tvs, air conditioning, cars, cell phones and more calories than are healthy for them.
And, our poor are seeing the largest pay increases of any group in the U.S. which is why there are 5 million fewer poor now than in 2016.
By comparison, there are 1.4 billion people living in "multi-dimensional poverty". No running water, no electricity, no shoes, eating rats for survival. Perpetual intestinal disease from drinking rancid water and food, after walking miles to get it.
6
Yes, what if the system is designed to keep Americans just complacent enough to feel things are as good as they can possibly get, so they never dare fight for actual change? The DNC spends more time attacking the candidate who will address inequality and the system that maintains it, than it does anything else. Does that seem like a coincidental mistake to you?
13
@John Huppenthal
That may be so but the number of people who did not have health insurance rose from 25.6 million people in 2017 to 27.5 million in 2018. That included 4.3 million children due to declines in Medicaid coverage, especially for Hispanic children and children under the age of six.
Despite the decline in poverty, the Census Bureau found that 38.1 million people in 2018 were poor. This was 1.4 million fewer poor people than in 2017, but about one in eight Americans still lived below the poverty line — $25,465 for a family with two adults and two children.
Although median household income rose for four consecutive years, the rate of growth and the income level has slowed significantly and is slightly below where it was almost two decades ago.
Despite stock market highs and low unemployment, poverty in the U.S. is pervasive. Poverty increased in 30% of all U.S. counties between 2016 and 2018. Researchers found that poverty cut across racial and geographic boundaries.
11
It's a minor point, but this piece of information struck me:
"One-third of Americans say that they have been in pain 'often' or 'very often' in the last four weeks.
Some of the pain probably results from a lack of universal health care. Millions of Americans endure constant toothaches in a way that doesn’t happen in our peer countries."
I'm wondering if that chronic pain is one reason why so many working-class Americans seem to be angry constantly. I know how bad-tempered and stressed I get after just a day or two of pain from, say, a pulled muscle, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
30
The statistic that I am most interested in is how many of those who are white and who voted and are these "forgotten" people, voted for tRump in 2016?
14
When a country is run by a bankrupt person (morally and financially), he will continue to bankrupt people in the lower economic brackets. He bankrupts people financially and morally. His cheer leaders in the senate should not be spared of criticism as well. When corruption in plain sight gets a pass - nothing holds back. No one has become GREAT AGAIN !
15
This doesn't go far enough, Mr Kristof. Why didn't you point out that it was Reagan who began the dramatic cuts in top marginal tax rates which ignited the income inequality that we are suffering from today? Why didn't you point out that Republican governors and legislatures refused to implement the ACA that has, in Democratic states, gone a long way toward helping those Americans who didn't have healthcare? Why didn't you point out that not a single Republican voted for the ACA, which was so desperately needed by working people? Why didn't you point out that it is Republican judges, especially, as Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pointed out, "The Roberts Five" of Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices, who have repeatedly and relentlessly sided with corporations over the interests of workers "every d--n time"? Why haven't you pointed out that it was the Republican congress that made it virtually impossible to get out from under devastating college debt even in bankruptcy?
Democrats have not forgotten the working people of this country. Republicans who have destroyed the middle class, and continue to hurt working people.
Why won't you say so?
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@Sean
Awaiting the tome describing the myriad ways Reagan degraded the lives of the middle and lower classes.
19
@Sean :"Why didn't you point out that it was Reagan who began the dramatic cuts in top marginal tax rates which ignited the income inequality that we are suffering from today? "
The middle class started losing ground in 1973. But blaming Reagan does make for a better polemic.
Speaking of Reagan, he was right about that welfare queen. Well, maybe a welfare prince. We had one living next door to us in Detroit. At the beginning of the month he would try and sell his mother's food stamps. Near the end of the month he would ask for cash because his mother was hungry. In the interim there was partying in the evening. His mother seemed none the wiser for it and one felt sorry for her. I remember those neighborhoods well. As I said, spot on.
1
@Sean The amazing thing is that Reagan was a socialist: he lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 50%in 1981 and he further reduced the rate to 28% in 1986, but eliminated lower rates for capital gains in the process. Today's Republicans would go ballistic if a top rate of 50% or elimination of capital gains rates was proposed.
3
Please stop with the only way into middle class is a college degree. I have a number of friends who have relatives that are in the trades, welders, mechanics and such, who are doing very well. One neighbor’s son is making well into six figures more than his father did with his masters. There are many ways to make it but it takes hard work, training and a plan
39
@K D
A "plan" that succeeds. What do you tell the losers?
The economy is very strong, which is of paramount importance for many voters. I agree not everyone is sharing its strength but that is what matters to most voters. I would not be surprised if Trump gets reelected, that is bad news. Incumbent presidents usually win reelection. So do incumbent members of Congress.
The impeachment process and the Ukrain mess would not change many voters' minds. It might even help Trump politically as the Gallop polls suggest.
Trump knows that gaining the support of a majority of voters in a presidential election is not a requirement. Bill Clinton, won in 1992 with just 43 percent of the vote, a significantly weaker showing than Trump’s 46 percent.
Donald Trump is still strong in battleground states. Trump’s Electoral College performance was far stronger in 2016 than his popular vote performance, and there’s little sign that the underlying demographic drivers of that advantage have vanished.
1
Thanks to the bullying efforts of a high school history teacher, I managed to escape a rural Baja Iowa community and, after 2 tours of duty in Vietnam, earned several college degrees. I return home every year to put flowers on my parent’s graves and visit with old, and getting older, classmates and friends. Trump reigns supreme! Anyone who actually believes that this country is ever going to come together again, save a WWII like event, needs professional help.
52
This is a good economy? For resale shops and food banks.
120
I’d love to know what percentage of Trump’s base have stock portfolios. Surely it’s in the single digits.
14
My landlord, who is a millionaire, loves Trump.
1
This writer has made me happy, and I’m very grateful for that in these times.
5
Thank you, Nick for another great column. I fear, unless a great number of young people vote, Mr Trump will once again win. As to the real economy, until we wake up and realize people deserve a living wage, the two state economy will continue to get worse.
21
So glad that N. Kristof provided an update about the generous bank employee Emily James, and the thoughtful manager, Abigail Gilbert. They appear to have benefited from reporting by the caring and able Kristof. As to the CEO of U.S. Bank who knows how he will conduct policies with regard to employees when the coast is clear. One can hope.
I think the people of America need a more complete view of our economy, including bright spots along with troubled areas and its prospects for the future than Kristof can provide. Too few of us know how rigged our economic system is. Elizabeth Warren, in particular, seems to have considered this in depth, including the kind of reconstructing of the economy necessary to make a difference to a majority of Americans.
In terms of the pain quotient in this country, without prompting, two doctors that I know told me of patients not sleeping well and suffering from anxiety as a result of Trump's behavior. Many of us feel pain and fear as a result of this presidency. We are aware of present and past examples of despotism, large scale violence, killing, starvation, brutality and menace. Along with all his destructive behavior, Trump's abuse of power also has its psychological effects on us.
60
Yes, you are spot on about the psychological suffering by many Americans, due to living under the constant barrage of mean-spirited, vulgar discourse and policies that seems designed to cause harm.
At my last routine medical exam (I’m 67) they had a cover sheet on the update form, with a few personal questions about general well being, designed to detect psychological distress. Simple questions about alcohol consumption, and are there days when usual activities don’t bring pleasure, etc. I was surprised that my honest answers were red-flag territory. So I added a note, that I know my distress is political in nature. The intake nurse read that and gave me a sympathetic nod.
I’ve read many comments on forums, by health care providers who are acutely aware of increasing distress in their patients caused by the phenomenon of Trump. It’s real and I’m sure it’s costly. It would be very interesting for someone to do a well designed research study about it.
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@Just Curious
Hello, Thank you for sharing your feelings. I was surprised by the doctors revealing their patients' distress to me. Those doctors may be troubled as well. I know that I nodded in assent after they spoke, just as the intake nurse did with you. We're not to old to be engaged and do what we can to elect a different president. All the best to you.
11
@F. McB - I'm rather vividly reminded of my appointment with my rheumatologist three days after the 2016 election. I couldn't stop crying, I was barely coherent - I have lupus and the ACA is the only reason I can get insurance. I was in my doctor's office, sobbing and could hardly get words out beyond 'what will I do'? It seemed like a given at that point that the ACA was toast - thankfully, the GOP failed (so far), but every challenge to the ACA brings me back to that place. I'm gripped by fear and anxiety because this is my life, I'm sick, I have to have health insurance.
And that's the privileged version of Trump anxiety. I know of two legal immigrants, who had had green cards for decades, deciding to get naturalized because they didn't feel safe here under Trump. A Muslim friend was verbally accosted in a local park - here, in one of the bluest slices of America - shortly after the election and told to go back where he came from. An elementary school in the next town has had to hold meetings with parents too scared to drop their kids off at school, because ICE is targeting families. It goes on and on and on. A lot of people are seriously frightened, and worse, they have reason to be.
19
There are so many people in this country that make next to nothing, and it’s appalling when compared to other advanced countries. There seems to be no way to get ahead except take a huge gambit and borrow for college, which often doesn’t work out.
A lot of it has to do with our education system, which is more about creating winners and losers rather than elevating everyone. Too often we focus on the top, or just the people who do incredibly well after going to some great school. A lot of people just don’t make it. I would like to see more invested in the trades or job-training like in Germany.
While some of this could be alleviated by welfare state policies, Democrats have also supported the importation of cheap labor, which has undercut wages in those sectors.
It’s within our power to fix these problems but we’ll need a paradigm shift to do so.
44
@Peter I agree with you in general, but I think our schools have been focusing on the bottom rather than the top, in an effort to ensure everyone succeeds. The result has been harmful to the majority, who are disciplined enough for a more stringent and modern curriculum. All of our kids suffer from the disruptions of a few.
I also agree that not everyone is suited to academics and there should clearly be more and much broader vocational training after seventh or eighth grade. And boot camp type classes for those whose undisciplined behaviors preclude their participating through either of the these avenues.
The paradigm shift you speak of can be done by reallocating our national budget and funding schools as if they were our defense. The profits realized would be in human capital, which, after Reagan, has not been a Republican value.
In fact, it has long been the pro-corporate Republican policy to import cheap labor. Democrats simply try to treat people humanely once they're here. Moreover, wages are largely undercut by union busting, which also is Republican policy.
Do some more research into what I've said. Perhaps you'll be convinced to vote in upcoming elections for those with actual policies designed to remedy these harmful wage discrepancies and who believe that life isn't about creating winners and losers, but broader opportunities for everyone.
11
These two weeks I've suffered from a severe toothache. It's astonishing to me that two centuries ago I'd have ridden my pony over to the barber's and had it yanked out, and three whiskies later I'd be fine. In 21st century America it took two weeks of severe pain, while trying to get it addressed (vacations, referrals, holidays, etc.) and it still got yanked out! Yes, we have opioids but what did two centuries of progress give me? Surely this is not the best we can do???
27
Sounds like American Carnage. This is free-form storytelling barely propped up by a couple fuzzy and carefully selected survey questions
1
Interview yourself, and see if the economy is working for you. Personally, it is not working for me. It didn't work for me under Obama, either, but I was not going to vote GOP after Reagan and Bush Jr. tanked the economy and got us into eternal wars.
23
Why Nic are the very people who are in despair voting for trump? I still do not understand it. He is using his base only to his own ends to stay in power.
182
@Mother
Because those same people grew tired of receiving a lot of hope and very little change from corporate democrats.
The Fraud Street/investor class cabal that has taken over the party offered those voters little more than lip service mixed in with a little slow and pragmatic change. They can't wait another 40 years so they put up their middle fingers and voted for Trump.
Millions of Americans did not participate in the so-called "Obama recovery." Millions more are not participating in the so-called "Trump boom."
Their votes are there for the taking. Offering them another do-nothing centrist will result in them returning to Trump's "loving arms."
19
@ mother there’s a recent survey from NPR that shows that the poor and middle class suffer in paying for health, unexpected expenses etc compared to the rich. But the majority of survey participants, some 60 percent feel that income inequality is not something that needs to be addressed!
Also across all groups the belief is the American dream is alive and well.
How astounding. All I can say is Americans have drunk the koolaid. Strong culture in this country around self reliance even when the deck is stacked against you. Plays well to the “dream” the GOP is selling.
52
I spent 35 years as a public health nurse (home care) visiting the very same people who would have voted for trump. As you might imagine, they were for the most part, poorly educated, low income families living either in the very rural areas or the heart of the drug infested, decaying city. Their TVs ran 24 hours a day and papers like The NY Times or books that would have enlightened them were not to be found. They received their information about the world from individuals like themselves or the Fox News channel. I have to believe they saw trump as a charismatic savior and they simply became the cult followers. Simply stated, little or no critical thinking was involved in their presidential choice.
46
Certainly there are too Americas and we should do something about it, but it hasn’t escaped anyone’s notice that the fiercest opposition to addressing this situation comes from the working class themselves who have disdain for those “elites,” such as yourself, who want to do something about it
Not sure how we can make progress with such opposition from the people who would benefit.
32
One of the things that could be done - and is in some states - would be raising the minimum wage across the country. Too many workers are still at the $7.25 per hour rate, which was established a few decades ago. This is truly outrageous in this economy and while rich folk and corporations got huge tax breaks! How can anyone live on this? We all need to demand more of our government and vote in candidates that will help people, instead of pushing them down!
8
This isn't true, since the majority, including the working class majority, voted for Hillary Clinton. The problem with so many elites is that they have been making "progress" at the expense of the people they purport to help. San Francisco and Montclair are two cases in point, where so-called Progressives have completely sold the working class down the river. Don't blame me if I despise both parties, and only vote for Democrats because the GOP is so much worse.
5
Well of course "Low-income Americans also report levels of physical pain impairing their lives that are higher than reported by wealthier Americans."
I disagree that the cause is health care, however. A poor *diet* leads to inflammation, and this leads to pain. The wealthy can afford better than the SAD (Standard American Diet). The wealthy are eating vegetables instead of boxed macaroni and cheese. What's behind this observation is wealth inequality (and sometimes education), not access to medicine.
14
I'm eating vegetables because I'm not wealthy. I actually got out of Whole Foods once with a bill of only $19 and a week's worth of ingredients for vegan meals. That's rare, but while buying fruit is more expensive than buying chocolate, you can stretch a vegan/vegetarian meal by mixing the vegetables with lots of rice.
12
Make sure you take Vitamin B12...absent in vegan diet. In addition, absorption of Viramin B12 decreases with age. Deficiency can affect cerebral functioning.
6
@Stephanie Wood good point: a vegan diet is definitely easy on the budget!
But most Americans aren't going to give up that pricey meat and dairy, so the poor will often "economize" by using cheap refined carbs instead of healthy veggies. Hello, inflammation!
3
This situation began in 1973. Forces that nobody noticed had developed which had insignificant effects due to larger forces which overwhelmed. The costs of energy from fossil fuels were very low in comparison to the rest of the world. Our great core industries of steel and automotive production were enormous, highly profitable, and obsolete. The working people with high school or less educations were most of the middle class and most of lower income people could afford their own homes. The unions had forced enough businesses to share enough of the returns from their productivity that that nearly all shared a larger share of theirs with non-union employees, too. The result was a miracle economy in which only isolation from participating resulted in not benefitting. But then it all changed.
The Yom Kipper War led to an oil embargo by Arab states. The shortages of petroleum led to 55 mph national highway speed limits, gas lines, restrictions to access to buy gas to every other day, and a ripple effect that resulted in steep costs for everything.
The long Vietnam War was funded with deficits along with the improvements in the social safety nets.
Nixon removed our currency from the gold standard.
The steel and automobile industries had not upgraded their factories and products. Foreign competitors had, they offered cheaper and more efficient products just in time.
The result was stagflation and massive loss of well paying jobs. The end of the post war boom.
11
The other steel producers upgraded their factories with the Marshall Plan. We supported Japan and Korea and did nothing for our own producers. So our plants are 100 years old and theirs are half that and then we tax them excessively and allow unions to run them into bankruptcy.
4
Not really what happened. The European and Japanese producers scrapped those factories built after World War II and upgraded them to the newer technologies, while the Americans did not.
19
I expect a major 'correction' in under 3 years
I have been up and down, so glad I have Social Security AND Medicare with a paid for cheap old home
2 Divorces certainly are expensive, if only my stepdaughter and I still had our first house...
She and one of her Draft Age sons visit next week
We will talk a lot and I will remind her that my home is still an option if needed for her, her children and her husband
Good luck to us all
God Bless America please...we little people need some hope...
29
Insightful piece. Here in bushfire ravaged, now torrential flooding OZ we have a terrific SOCIAL health system. It provides for everyone, and allows those who choose with a private health option. After the Port Arthur massacre, the Federal government stepped in with gun buy-backs and tough gun control countrywide.
My point: SOCIALISM is not to be feared. It helps everyone!
470
@Mark Paskal
Good on ya. Your government works for the people. Ours works for trump's rich pals.
Yours is closer to democracy than socialism. We've caromed off into the authoritarian mode where the government and its propaganda outlets give us our opinion and use our tax dollars to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted.
19
Thanks for the good words, Mr. Kristof. While reading your article I found myself thinking of "Animal Farm," if we only work harder then our leader really will deliver for us. Sadly, it didn't work out for the animals in the barn, and even more sadly, there is a very high probability that it won't work out for those who are currently suffering from income inequality.
48
Yes. Your are right about the Animal Farm comparison. It’s the old Calvinistic “ProtestantWork Ethic” thinking that has gotten us into so much of this. Those who work the hardest, we’re told, will reap the benefits. Tell that to most people who work hard every day for next to nothing, while those who push papers around desks or at computer stations finding ways to get more than they need are the ones reaping all the benefits. I’m Catholic, but I will say it here: The Catholic Church in the U.S.—in more suburban well-off parishes—has long ago bought into the Protestant Work Ethic thinking, even though Catholic social teaching (which well-off parishes don’t teach) is against such “prosperity gospel” preaching.
1
"...indignant columns are not a scalable solution to the problem of labor injustices."
Of course they're not. But last week Mr. Kristof's indignant column did a lot of good for Abigail Gilbert and Emily James. So cheers to him for maintaining his sense of virtuous outrage, and always using his platform for laudable objectives. His gift for encouraging people find their better selves brought about the desired result.
216
I wish we had more indignant columns to help suffering animals and children. Mr. Kristof has reported on children in Yemen, Venezuela, etc., but I don't think he has reported on the suffering of animals for a while.
3
Your comments on suicide need further examination. The proximate cause may be drugs, but the antecedent cause is despair. But is despair the ultimate cause, and, if so, why? You point out that the suicide rate (or rate of increase) was lower during the Great Depression, when economic circumstances were much worse, and extended to a greater proportion of the population. Yet despair would appear to be greater today. Is the ultimate cause a lack of "grit"? I say this with all due respect and seriousness. Did the advent of no-score, everyone gets a trophy result in the inability to form a callus? Were the post-depression generations raised with a different set of expectations, which, when not realized, results in an ability to cope? Why is resilience relatively lacking at a time when physical conditions are relatively better? A lack of spirituality (broadly defined)? An increase in ennui or anomie accompanying the loss of the extended family? There would seen to be deeper, subtler dynamics at play which would deserve exploration. Can children be inoculated from the despair of disappointment? These questions are not to trivialize the ongoing disaster, or to defend extant economic order, but to argue for an analysis of current social/psychological dynamics which may be leading to vulnerability rather than resilience.
4
@UpperMidWest I think people had more space and a more simple, humane and flexible lifestyle all around. Today it is fast, tight, loud, mechanistic. Everything has been monetized. It's depressing. And safe housing is unaffordable. REITs profit, neighborhoods suffer. It's too crowded and getting more so. There are fewer forests and clean swimming holes. People work out in gyms instead of walking. It's not safe. There are more cars. They are noisier. The FCC isn't functioning. Doctors are controlled by insurance conglomerates. It's hard to have grit living and working in conditions where there is less and less space to develop it.
So, I would argue that physical conditions are not, in fact, better. They were better when toasters could be repaired and kids learned from their elders how to do it. When the school gymnasium was the cafeteria with tables pushed aside and sports games took place in open fields. Humans need space to create and participate, and we don't have that anymore.
With fewer natural outlets, we have become spoiled, lazy, and undisciplined. For the last several decades, our culture has taught that money and power are the only values and to chase it at any and all costs (not that there's much choice if one wants to survive.) This myopic view, and resultant inescapable lifestyle, is killing us, and at the end of the Monopoly game, what is surprising is that the suicide rate isn't higher.
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During the Depression, we had leaders who were actually trying to help us. Now, our leaders have sold us down the river to Wall Street. I don't understand suicide as much as I would understand if people were rioting in the streets against our government.
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@shamtha Grit is the ability to persevere. It's a personality trait (temperment + character) mostly constructed by environment, education, and experience. You can develop it.
1
Your column last week helped two people who had been fired and has been instrumental to perhaps changing the bank culture. I say perhaps, because culture change can't be done at the drop of a hat. But there is hope if the CEO is truly on board.
To help all people who are fired for sticking to fundamental principles of right or wrong requires scaling up of what you did. It requires legislation and legislators like the late Paul Wellstone, who said, "Politics isn't about big money or power games; it's about the improvement of people's lives."
He embodied what a public servant in the legislative branch should be doing. Pure and simple.
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I do not think the economy or anything remotely related to the economy got Trump elected and will get him re-elected. Only folly will do that. The first election surprised everyone by showing how abundant folly actually was. We should therefore not be surprised at a possible re-election. Folly is cheap and tends to multiply easily. A real context between conservative and liberal values would be interesting and most people would likely find a bit of each in their political orientation. But that is not what this next election is about. Let us not mistake the coming election as anything close to that.
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@Snowpharoah
"I do not think the economy or anything remotely related to the economy got Trump elected..."
In 2016, the economies of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin grew less than 1% new jobs.
Total revenues of the federal government didn't grow in 2016, they shrank, got smaller, putting Social Security and Medicare at risk.
So, yes, the economy had everything to do with Trump's election.
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The electoral college gave us our two worst presidents, Bush Jr. (in 2000) and Trump - the majority of the voters did not support them, tho' the majority was idiotic enough to support Bush Jr. the 2nd time around, something which has always puzzled me.
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@John Huppenthal wrong
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/30/business/economy/gdp-numbers.html
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Hand wringing with no solutions is not conducive to improvements in mental health. When the working people of this country have been sold a bill of goods, such as the trickle down theory, only to end up being sold out, is it any wonder they give up? As a way to redirect their pain we now have a demagogue. Whoever didn’t see this one coming hasn’t been paying attention.
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@Thomas
"...trickle down..."
In 2018, our economy grew $630 billion real for our 327 million people. By comparison, your beloved high tax EU grew a piddling $210 billion real for their 540 million people.
I must admit I was prepared to disagree with this article when I first started reading, but I found it to be even-handed and informative.
I should add that I have a bit of a bias against Kristoff since his patronizingly tone deaf series, “White People Just Don’t Get It,” which painted a terribly unrealistic depiction of blacks in America, expectedly blaming white Americans for virtually all ills, while eschewing any discussion of personal accountability. It was befitting of someone like the author who does not live in an inner city, multi racial neighborhood like me, where crime is rampant and bullets fly from the projects into businesses.
Conversely, this piece touches on poverty’s adverse effects on all Americans, regardless of race. The destruction of automation and often overlooked negatives of free trade. There is so much that unites us working class Americans, from black to white.
Let economic opportunity be the chief focus of journalists and politicians and change will follow. No time for identity politics.
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@Mark
Europe does not have a gun culture; I used to go Europe every year; i do not remember news of mass shootings or gun homicides. Combat style weapons are not for sale as they are here. I grew up on a ranch; shotguns were usually the only weapon on a ranch. My father had a hunting rifle locked in a case. Boys did not bring guns into schools, even if they had them in a pickup gun rack. I see no justification for the sale of semi-auto combat style weapons; they are not used for hunting; they are meant to kill multiple individuals. Those are the weapons used in mass shootings.
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I didn't go in for identity politics until cops started harassing and murdering unarmed African-Americans, and until both white and black (!) politicians in our town basically sold minority neighborhoods down the river and let white developers destroy them. Since then (sorry, Dad), and since studying American history, I have to admit that my feelings of anger and frustration against white people have increased. After all these centuries, I wish they would just leave us alone, and leave the rest of the world alone, too.
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Nicholas Kristof is right. America is divided into three classes: the billionaires, the almost wealthy and everybody else. Regardless of any other country, America's poor are in the lower income brackets.
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I want to be deported back to Sweden! I could kick my great-grandparents for leaving back in 1910. Why didn't they just wait it out? Talk about "going from the frying pan, into the fire!" Sweden turned out to be a great place, and America turned into Scamerica. I dread growing old in this horrible country. Just about everything here in the USA has gone wrong for almost everyone.
2
We give way to much credit/blame to a President for the short term economy. Trump happens to be very, very lucky in that he inherited a rebounding economy....strong enough to withstand his tariff foibles and self-serving, vindictive leadership style. Policy implementation based upon a strategic vision takes years to achieve results. Just like Pres. Obama cleaned up the disastrous policies of Pres. Bush - in the financial markets and Iraq, the next President and future generations will be tasked with repairing the damage caused by this failed President.
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@Hank He also opened up a trillion dollar deficit as an insurance policy. Yet growth rates have dropped.
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@Hank
"...inherited a rebounding economy..."
Nope.
Here are the growth numbers for total federal revenues by calendar year starting with Obama's big tax increase year of calendar 2013:
2013: 12%
2014; 8%
2015: 4%
2016: negative 1%
Obama left Trump an economy in a death spiral.
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@John Huppenthal
Reagan, Bush and Trump gave big tax cuts to corporations; the tax gifts did not create more jobs; they increased shareholder financial benefits. FYI: taxes are what sustain a large complex economy with a national highway system, clean air and water. Industrial pollution was stopped via regulations. Trump is attacking the EPA as anti-business. What business needs to freely pollute the environment? And, why are guns now allowed in national parks? I don't remember guns in Yosemite or Yellowstone. If deer herds need culling, that is what park rangers do; we don't need private hunters hunting deer in parks. You might be surprised at how many homes do not have guns, outside of States like Montana where hunting is not done in densely populated areas.
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Last week, I asked if there were some way to send a small check to Emily James if she would accept it. It wouldn't be enough to keep her from having to sell her blood in order to eat but if enough of us did that it would help while she's trying to find paying work. I never got an answer. I am still willing to do it if someone will set up a way for me - and anyone else who wants to help - to get a check out.
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@JFF Thanks for reading my column and for your interest in helping Emily. She does not want a gofundme campaign, because she worries that would lead people to think that she's out for money. But you can contact her or send her a check at her mailing address. It's listed in a tweet in her Twitter account, which my original column about her links to.
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@Nicholas Kristof Thanks, Nick. It's done. It's a small check but hopefully, it will help. I hope Emily lands a much better job very soon.
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@Nicholas Kristof Hello Nick, I also wanted to send a small donation to Emily but was unsure how to do that. Sorry, I do not have a twitter account.
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Is it possible to target these folks the way the republicans do to win their votes? 20M seems like a worthwhile audience, and Dems are certainly trying to help them.
Also, the statistic of 50% no longer in the workforce! How is it that is not reported-I know there are a lot of devious ways to not include these folks when you want to paint a rosy picture, but why isn't it common knowledge?
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@eubanks When an employed person is fired, the ranks of the unemployed goes up. When that person gets despaired and stops searching for a job, that person joins the ranks of "no longer in the work force" and the unemployment rate goes down, yes, down.
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If an incumbent Democratic president, over 4 years, reduced unemployment by 3 % and maintained GDP growth at or above 2% per annum, the NYT would endorse him/her heartily.
The fact is that a normal president with Trump's economy would win easily. But no one ever accused Trump of being a normal president.
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@ed connor Actually, we have a pretty good comparison. In the first 37 months of Trump's presidency, employment rose by LESS than in the last 37 months of the Obama presidency. And Obama did this while cutting deficits dramatically, while Trump's more anemic growth is in part due to $1 trillion deficits that our kids will have to repay. So if you're impressed by the Trump economy, I hope you were even more thrilled by the Obama economy!
1178
Trump has cut taxes for the ultra wealthy and raised taxes on the working and middle class people whose incomes are stagnating. He has increased the national debt by trillions. The infrastructure is falling apart, because the rich are paying no taxes. Billionaires like Bezos and the Waltons don't pay their fair share, or a fair wage, and exploit their employees, who are often forced to seek public assistance, so that we are subsidizing billionaires TWICE, by giving them tax breaks and by giving assistance to their employees. This economy only works for the upper middle class and the wealthy. I cannot endorse that heartily.
569
Unemployment has decreased by just a little more than 1 percent since Trump took office.
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